Madam, - I am very confused. If I remember correctly our pacifist brethren, to the North, were scathing about the US-led invasion of Iraq. Apparently it was illegal, racist and disrespectful of sovereignty. This worthy stance allowed our native liberals to make common cause with the green-tinged fascists. It was and remains a strange relationship.
Who would have thought that mass murderers and inveterate idealists would make common cause for the defence of a despot? But come together they did and today they still rant about imperial America stamping all over the rights of sovereign Iraq. They speak of some mythical Iraq that was politically and culturally at peace. They speak of a nation that did not pose a threat to others and to its own citizens.
These ridiculous and anti-intuitive assertions do not confuse me. What causes me to scratch my head is the attitude adopted by these arch supporters of international law to poor benighted Colombia. This just happens to be the longest existing democracy in South America. That it is fighting a vicious civil war against extremists from the left and right does make it justifiably reluctant to allow tourists of a certain calibre to visit its internal enemies.
Ireland is now playing host to men who have broken the laws of a sovereign nation, who have aided the enemies of a sovereign nation, and who are now denying that they should be subject to international law.
Where is the outrage? Where are the protesters? Where is the consistency? Am I now living in a democracy policed by Northern fascists with the tacit support of the "do nothing" liberals? Are law and order something that happens to other people? - Yours, etc,
PAUL BOWLER, Meath Road, Bray, Co Wicklow.
Madam, - Why on earth has Bertie Ahern instructed officials to brief US diplomats on the "Colombia Three" affair? The men in question are not American, their alleged crimes were not committed in the US, they carried out no crime against US citizens or property. Which prompts the question of what this issue has to do with the Americans.
The simple answer is that the current US regime regards every event in the world as US business, and the whole world as an extension of American soil.
This egotistical attitude has already led to the geopolitical disaster that is Iraq. The arrogance of the US government appears to increase practically every day. The Irish Government should be seeking to curtail this US hegemony and not pandering to it in a sickening display of obsequiousness. - Yours, etc,
EOIN MEANY, Greenwood Lawn, Ayrfield, Dublin 13.
Madam, - I am disappointed at Mr Ahern's defeatist attitude with regard to the "Colombia Three". Several months back he expressed similar defeatism in the Dáil when he declared that the butchers of Garda Jerry McCabe would have to be released in order to advance the peace process.
Only for the howls of outrage raised by the opposition, the Garda, the public and Mrs McCabe, which stiffened Mr Ahern's spine, these men would now be walking the streets thumbing their noses at law and order.
When you stand up to terrorists, they cave in. When you collaborate with them, they come back asking for more. Mr Ahern has failed to learn this lesson.
Mr Ahern claims that there was no deal with regard to the Colombia Three. Well, of course not Why would Sinn Féin/IRA need to negotiate a deal when they knew Mr Ahern would, as usual, cave in and allow these terrorists to stay in Ireland.
It is mystifying why someone who is reputed to have such brilliant negotiating and people-handling skills can be so easily duped time and time again by SF/IRA. I am aghast at how Mr Ahern can repeatedly place his trust in SF/IRA only for that trust to be repeatedly spat back in his face. One shudders at the price we are going to pay for Mr Ahern's appeasement. - Yours, etc,
JASON FITZHARRIS, Rivervalley, Swords, Co Dublin.