Madam, - David Rolfe (December 4th), who thinks that it is appropriate to jail a peaceful protester, seems to inhabit the topsy-turvy world of the neo-cons. Through his looking glass Mr Rolfe sees peaceful protest as a possible threat to the safety of aircraft using Shannon. What rubbish! As the hundreds of protesters that blockaded the main dual-carriageway leading to the airport on Saturday showed, they are wedded to principles of non-violence.
The Irish Anti-War Movement distributed these principles by leaflet to all taking part and to the gardaí before the blockade got under way. Unfortunately, the gardaí had already decided on their tactics of using overwhelming force and intimidation. The intimidation came in the form of searching the buses arriving from Dublin, Cork and Galway and removing all placards, flag poles and even 1,000 posters. These were deemed to be "weapons". Naturally, no receipt was produced. It was, of course, nothing to do with security - but an attempt to paint the protesters as the ones who threaten violence.
The jackboot is, of course, firmly on the other foot. At this latest and all other protests at Shannon, the only ones carrying arms have been the gardaí. They have previously commandeered the airport's fire engines to have at the ready as water cannon and I have seen plain-clothes officers with the bulge of their sub-machine guns plainly showing under the "Garda" bibs.
Mr Rolfe's further assertion - he tries to give the impression that he knows these things - that the US Federal Aviation Authority might declare Shannon unsafe flies in the face of logic. The US military is obviously more than satisfied about the level of security at Shannon, as it has increased its usage of the airport since the protests have begun. Indeed, your paper reported only last Saturday that the number of US troops passing through Shannon has peaked in the last month. The Pentagon brass is not worried - why should the FAA be?
Finally, Mr Rolfe raises the spectre of a plane taking off from Shannon after being sabotaged.
This too is, of course, utter nonsense. Anti-war saboteurs have on three occasions in the past breached security at Shannon and damaged or disabled military planes. On each occasion they have actually gone out of their way to make the sabotage noticeable and, indeed, to be apprehended. No threat to any person could possibly have ensued.
Only in the world inhabited by Mr Rolfe and the neo-cons do anti-war protesters present a threat of violence, does overwhelming force create peace and can democracy be built at the point of a gun.
The majority sees the world in a very different way. - Yours, etc.,
Dr COLM STEPHENS, Secretary, Irish Anti-War Movement, PO Box 9260, Dublin 1