Sir, - In case we should cause Kevin Myers a nervous breakdown by being silent for a few days, a response to his Irishman's Diary of February 23rd seems appropriate. Our problem with the Irish Army's exchange and training programmes with the US and British armies is not based on history, though the My Lai massacre and Bloody Sunday are fresh enough in people's minds to constitute useful indicators of the priorities of those forces.
Our opposition is based on what is happening right now: among other things, on the fact that US and British forces are currently bombing Iraq in defiance of international law; on the fact that US forces are training a Colombian army that is notorious for its human rights abuses; and on the use by US, British and other forces of depleted uranium in Kosovo and elsewhere.
These are not historical artefacts - they are policies and practices that are causing death and destruction in the here and now. Should they not, at least, cause us pause for thought in our headlong rush towards closer military co-operation with such forces through NATO's Partnership for Peace and the EU Rapid Reaction Force?
Kevin Myers points out that we did not mention French military actions in a recent statement. This is true, but it is hard to do everything when, as Mr Myers says, you are a "one-man band. . .operating out of an office the size of a dishwasher". But, had we had time and resources, we might have said something about French support for the genocidal regime in Rwanda (this was in 1994, so probably more worthy of a mention than the Dreyfus case which Mr Myers points out we also failed to advert to).
As for Kevin Myers's suggestion that we "receive extensive and sympathetic coverage in the media", we would like to propose a trade. If Mr Myers will take over our (dishwasher-sized) office for a week he can use our fax machine to send out as many press releases as he wishes. In return, we get to take over his regular column to indulge in our "sanctimonious rodomontade". The point is that Kevin Myers (representing himself) gets far more of a chance to put his views across than we (with a support base of 3,000 people) do, though never having met him, we cannot say if this is "in inverse proportion to. . .size". Yours, etc.
Andy Storey, AfrI, Lower Rathmines Road, Dublin 6, .