Sir, - Joe Murray of AfrI (September 22nd) and other correspondents beggar belief. They wish to march, write and crow about Partnership for Peace yet still call for military intervention in places like East Timor.
Do they expect the Defence Forces to sit around staring at the four walls all year long and suddenly spring in to action in various trouble spots using equipment from forces they have never encountered before, serving under commanders they have never heard of, taking their chances with modern ordinance with which they have no experience?
The modern world of international relations since 1989 is no longer about superpowers and invasion. It is about complex ethnic and internal conflicts often accompanied by major human rights abuses and military might. The international community needs to be able to react to these situations and PfP is a European response to this. Forging agreement and common activities with former enemies in Eastern Europe, especially Russia, can only further international security.
Mr Murray indulges in the usual cheap and uniformed jibes about armaments. Does he believe we should leave the EU or the UN because their members possess nuclear weapons? The fact that certain nations have inconsistencies in their foreign policy should not prevent us responding with a meaningful solidarity to those who are being ethnically cleansed (proper intervention, not self-indulgent marches). International law and human rights have no value unless they can be enforced. The extradition of General Pinochet and the establishment of war crimes tribunals are the beginnings of such a system of international law; other inconsistencies should not prevent us playing our part. - Yours, etc.,
Michael McLoughlin, The Maltings, Island Street, Dublin 8.