Madam, - All the usual suspects will be taking to the streets to pillory Uncle Sam during the Bush visit. Why is it that Islamic fundamentalists are exempt from the ire of our regular band of protesters and self-proclaimed human rights activists?
What chance demonstrations will be organised and statements issued condemning the barbarity of Jihadist beheadings and suicide bombings? No chance.
The disproportionate criticism of President Bush and the United States distorts public debate, undermines the credibility and integrity of justified and credible criticism of American foreign policy and grants impunity to the barbarity of al-Qaeda and other groups which should be the focal point for universal protest and public disgust. - Yours, etc.,
ALAN SHATTER, Dublin 2.
Madam, - Michael Parsons (Opinion, June 17th) says we should welcome President Bush. Our views should transcend politics, he argues. Does that mean that we ignore all leaders' foreign policies in our diplomatic exchanges with them?
Protests are an essential part of any democracy. They aim to highlight injustice and human rights abuses wherever and to whom this is happening. The protesters are not attacking the American or any people, nor are they personally insulting anyone. They are attacking a particular man's foreign policy.
America has waged an illegal war (without UN mandate) against the people of Iraq and continues to have an army of occupation there. That's the real point of the protest - to highlight the military aggression, injustice, hypocrisy, and double standards of American foreign policy in the Middle East.
Since the second World War America has waged wars of aggression in Vietnam, Korea, Laos, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Panama, Granada, El Salvador, Colombia and Venezuela, resulting in the deaths and maiming of many millions of innocent civilians, all justified in the name of "upholding democracy".
Like the British Empire in its heyday it feels it has the right to invade many parts of the world, support and sponsor state terrorism, establish puppet dictatorships, impose callous economic sanctions, intimidate, bully and coerce smaller countries into compliance and shape world economics and politics in favour of a rich and powerful American élite.
We Irish have had centuries' experience of being subjugated by a colonial power. We rightly feel appalled and outraged whenever we see injustice and tyranny of this kind happening in the world and we naturally empathise with the victims. - Yours, etc.,
ROS CAMPBELL, Glenwood Road, Raheny, Dublin 5.
Madam, - As a member of a small proportion of Irish society that sees the inherent danger of radical Islam, I wish to convey the warmest welcome to the American President.
Few people in the West are prepared to acknowledge the patently obvious threat to our (not just the American) way of life, though many Eastern European leaders are all too aware of the importance of liberty.
George Bush is a man of principle and relentless courage in the face of barbarity - both on American soil, and around the world.
He is a man of deep faith, both in God and family. So many Europeans sneer at his, and most Americans', faith in God, yet we have much to learn in our increasingly amoral, anti-family welfare states. Self-sufficiency is the way forward, yet few in Europe's ageing population have the will to appreciate this.
Mr Bush believes, like too few other world leaders, that a person's success and wealth is something they deserve. His tax cuts (like Reagan's and John F. Kennedy's before him) have been an essential component in catalysing growth in the US economy - that economy on which we in Ireland greatly depend. His economic ideals are therefore not only morally sound, but pragmatically prudent.
We at the Freedom Institute - a new Irish organisation advocating free markets and limited government - welcome Mr Bush, and wish him well in November's election. - Yours, etc.,
JOHN LALOR, (Freedom Institute Spokesman on Economics), Terenure, Dublin 6W.
Madam, - I wonder if Trevor Troy (June 24th) could explain exactly what he means by "anti-American"?
Despite my participation in many of the recent anti-war demonstrations, as well as the Mayday protests in Dublin, I have yet to meet a single person who voices criticism of US foreign policy because they are "against the American people".
My colleagues and I have expressed concern for the violations of human rights by many countries, including the US. I have also criticised the human rights record of my own country, Ireland. Does that make me anti-Irish? - Yours, etc.,
SHANE DARCY, Human Rights for Change, Walshes Terrace, Woodquay, Galway.