Sir, - You were more than generous in giving almost a quarter of the Letters page of March 14th to G.T. Dempsey's contemptuous dismissal of any criticism of American foreign policy. He wonders "why we \ even bother".
The only reason why any government generally bothers is that its particular interests are at stake. Of the 189 member states of the UN, the United States has a military presence in 100 - and the list is growing. This military presence is there, not out of some high moral standard, but to protect the interests of US transnational businesses and the Pentagon's military and political strategies. This is shown very clearly in international forums when US interests clash with those of the rest of the international community.
The US walked out of the closing sessions of talks on the Rome Statute that was setting up the International Criminal Court because it refused to allow any US citizen to appear in such a court to answer any human rights allegations.
It also walked out of the Kyoto Conference when the rest of the world was trying to set down parameters to save the future of this polluted planet.
In the 1980s, when the International Court in the Hague convicted the US government of illegally mining the ports of Nicaragua, the US immediately denied the legitimacy of the Court and refused to accept its jurisdiction.
I could go on with the list - ad nauseam.
In all of this, citizens of other nations are not concerned with the internal affairs of the US, but in with US foreign policies which have profound effects on the internal affairs of other nations and on the lives of non-US citizens.
Since the crimes of September 11th every right-minded person must sympathise with the people of New York and the US, but that does not entail uncritical acceptance of every US action in its so-called "war on terrorism". The US is setting itself up as the new Messiah of this age, when everyone is judged on the simplistic criterion of being "either with me or against me".
Mr Dempsey's government has no moral, political or military infallibility or hegemony when it comes to the good of our common world.
Our own President McAleese, in New York recently, replied to Irish-American reactions to Irish critics of US foreign Policy since September 11th. She said : "Part of what 11th September was about was an attack on a value system that incorporates the freedom that we have to say what we think, even when what we think doesn't please everybody." - Yours, etc.,
BRENDAN BUTLER,
Pennock Hill,
Swords,
Co Dublin.