Sir, - The brutal events in Kosovo should act as a warning to the people of Ireland of just where our politicians are leading us. In a few months' time Ireland will be joining Partnership for Peace without any consultation whatsoever with the Irish people.
This means that Irish citizens will inevitably find themselves involved in conflict situations like that of Kosovo without any referEnce to the UN. While our politicians will wring their hands and try, as usual, to convince Irish citizens that we are still neutral, the rest of the world will not be so easily fooled.
Our hard-earned and respected reputation as UN peacekeepers will count for nothing. We will quite rightly be viewed as a tiny cog in the massive military/economic empire the EU is evolving into.
Our military capability is so tiny as to not even register on the scale of NATO countries, so it is obvious that it is our political loyalty which is important. The EU/ NATO cannot afford to have any country within the union behaving like a loose cannon at the UN.
Those within the EU/NATO alliance, who have obviously decided to sideline the UN, must take great comfort from the feeble response of the Irish Government to the present conflict.
It is deeply depressing that Europe has given up on the UN and yet again decided to go down the road of militarism. Sooner or later this will end in disaster just as it did in 1914/18 and 1939/45. The difference for Ireland on this occasion is that we will be part of the inevitable dire consequences.
Is it too much to ask our politicians to stand up rather than join up? Instead of taking the easy route to please our more powerful partners, could we not work to reform and strengthen the UN, making it an efficient military/political force capable of effective intervention in any part of the globe, thus negating the obviously dangerous use of regional forces like NATO. - Yours, etc.,
Anthony Sheridan, Carraig Eoin, Cobh, Co Cork.