Sir, - It is not even two months since the Amsterdam Treaty Referendum - in which neutrality and concern about nuclear military alliances played a major role - and Des O'Malley is inviting a NATO representative to address the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee! Mr O'Malley once thought a nuclear power plant at Carnsore was a "good idea". He now has another. He has called for more informed debate on NATO, praises the military alliance for saving him and Ireland from "enslavement", and indicates support for Irish membership of the NATO's so-called "Partnership for Peace".Mr O'Malley's questionable views of Cold War history and the efficacy of "peacemaking" via the threat of global annihilation (Cruise and Pershing nuclear missiles, ICBMs and neutron bombs were a few NATO "peacemakers") need to be challenged. But apart from his belief in NATO's past glory, he must have been taken aback by the NATO representative's admission that NATO believed the risk of global conflict in the foreseeable future to be "close to nil" and that NATO didn't have any enemies. Why, then, should NATO continue?, enquired Senator Paschal Mooney. Because its members wanted to, came the NATO reply. And we must be prepared for "potential threats".As NATO goes in search of an enemy - and a meaning - it must be asked: whatever became of the United Nations? With the Cold War ended, many hoped that NATO would follow the Warsaw Pact into oblivion and allow the UN to assume its proper role under the UN Charter as the guarantor of international security and peace. Instead, NATO is expanding its membership and support via such programmes as the Partnership for Peace, continues to upgrade its nuclear weaponry and to maintain nuclear war doctrines that have been found to be in violation of international humanitarian law by the World Court. NATO is also busily promoting the arms trade: its expansion into Eastern Europe has opened a lucrative arms market for the West, estimated at US$35 billion, as new NATO members are having to upgrade their weapons to NATO standards.For Ireland to have stayed out of a "partnership" with NATO has been a wise and courageous decision. Indeed, Mr O'Malley and David Andrews make an oddcouple in Government, as one champions NATO and its nuclear deterrent while the other launches a major disarmament initiative challenging the very nuclear "logic" underpinning the NATO alliance. Let's hope David Andrews wins. -Yours, etc.,Roger Cole,Carol Fox,Peace and Neutrality Alliance,Blackrock,Co Dublin.