Ireland should be "outraged" at the US government's review of the use of nuclear weapons, a leading US peace activist has said.
The Pentagon's Nuclear Posture Review effectively "rips to shreds" the non-nuclear proliferation treaty initiated by Ireland's former external affairs minister, Frank Aiken, Ms Mary van Lieshout of US Citizens in Ireland for an Alternative to War has said. Ms van Lieshout was at a weekend meeting in Galway hosted by the Galway Alliance Against War.
The Nuclear Posture Review, which was adopted in January but only made public this month,makes two major changes to the conditions under which US nuclear weapons might be used.
While previously they would be deployed only against a nuclear armed state or a state in a nuclear alliance, there was now provision to use them against non-nuclear states.
Ms van Lieshout noted the recent six-month remembrance of the attack on New York's twin towers and expressed sympathy to the victims' families, but said she also wanted to express sympathy to the families of 3,700 civilians killed during the war against Afghanistan.
In a very short while, President Bush had mastered "the language of war and the tactics of a warlord", she said. His "blatant ignorance" of international affairs and his inflammatory talk had contributed to other situations, including the Middle East which now faced the greatest crisis since 1967.
Calling on the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, to be more outspoken in condemnation, Ms van Lieshout said the 3,700 innocent victims, mainly women and children, who had died during US action in Afghanistan "did not bomb the World Trade Centre, did not elect the Taliban, but they died as if they did".
Also addressing the meeting, the Palestinian envoy to Ireland, Mr Ali Ahmed Halimeh, criticised Europe for being "politically impotent" on the current crisis in the Middle East.
It had created the situation and had "left it to the US", he said.
