Joe Horgan Column
By Joe Horgan
SEEING as we live in a state that decided to call the carnage of the
Second World War The Emergency it is probably best that we expect a certain
lack of clarity when it comes to this country and international events.
Furthermore we should take into account the political and ethical ethos
of the present Fianna Fail/PD government, as openly stated, when assessing
Ireland’s conduct with regards to foreign affairs.
Mary Harney stepped into the debate about the then forthcoming war in
Iraq and Ireland’s response to it by cutting through all moral and
legal objections and saying Ireland owed the USA an awful lot with regards
to our economy and we should always bear this in mind in our relationship
with them.
In other words she suggested that despite the Iraq war being in contravention
of UN resolutions and despite the flimsy grounds put forward in support
of invading — such as the non-existent weapons of mass destruction
and our sudden objection to a murderous tyrant we had previously armed
— that we owe the US our support because they gave us money.Which
in many ways brings an amazing clarity to our international standing.
It was never clearer that every aspect of our country including our morals
and our judgement was for sale to the highest bidder.
Of course outside of that the murkiness remains and our conduct has been
far from the cosy, friendly image we like to project. Amnesty International
has claimed that outside of Frankfurt airport in Germany that Shannon
airport here has been the most used stopover point for CIA flights carrying
prisoners for so-called rendition.
Apparently when our allies — who we support in wars because they
give us money — interrogate prisoners and hood them and lock them
up and beat them and deprive them of sleep and god only knows what else,
it is rendition.
If someone we don’t like does it, someone who doesn’t give
us money, it is called torture. So not only are we providing a stopping-off
point for American soldiers on their way to their President’s latest
venture but in contravention of all laws we are allowing the US to transport
through Irish airports prisoners who are stripped of all rights and end
up in Guantanamo Bay.
Of course all of this goes on whilst we apparently retain our neutral
status. Now what ever the pros and cons of our neutrality we might have
thought that, if nothing else, it gave us the opportunity to be some kind
of barometer of law and morality in the murky quagmire of international
relations.
Being in some way free of obligation to either warring party could mean
we held the unique position of being a truly honest broker. Being in thrall
to one party purely because of economic obligations would mean that we
were stripped of all moral authority whatsoever. Even accepting the puerile
analysis of the Bush administration that you are either with us or against
us wouldn’t carry as much moral bankruptcy as this.
In contravention of our own laws and of international human rights law
how can we allow the US to transport its prisoners though our airports?
Is it merely because they are our paymasters? What does that say about
us as a country?
If we take just one of these cases we can see the kind of world little
old Ireland is turning a blind eye to. One plane is known to have carried
a Canadian national from the US to Jordan from where he was taken to Syria.
He was held there for 13 months without charge during which time he was
tortured before being released. This plane which is also known to have
landed at Guantanamo Bay has been recorded as stopping at Shannon at least
twice.
Of course the government assures us that none of this is actually happening
though as yet they have not seen fit to search any of these planes. Bearing
in mind their stated policy as regards the USA and its actions we could
well be left thinking they have no intention whatsoever of ever doing
so.
We don’t have to pretend Ireland as a country has any great standing
internationally. Yes the economists praise us but they praise the sweatshops
of south-east Asia simply because they’re good for business. It
also seems the benign image we were fortunate to have had for so many
years is coming to an end now that we are flaunting our prosperity by
buying other people’s housing.
Nothing though can condone our abandonment of basic morality simply
because we’ve been slipped a few bob. And if that is what we are
at then lets at least come clean and just say so.
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