Sir, - On March 11th John Pilger issued a statement, distributed to The Irish Times, on the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and Ireland's proposed membership of NATO's PfP. On a weekend when NATO enlargement was in the news, I believe many people would have been interested in what Mr Pilger had to say. In an Irish Times article (March 12th) we read that NATO membership will cost Poland £1.08 billion, most of which will be spent on "modernising its armed forces". This makes Pilger's assertion that NATO enlargement will cause new members to take part in "an arms trade that they can ill afford" all the more relevant and interesting.
I was, therefore, surprised and disappointed at the failure of The Irish Times to cover the comments made by Pilger, who is recognised as one of the world's most renowned and distinguished journalists. Mr Pilger was in Ireland as a guest of St Angela's school in Waterford, where he was the recipient of an international peace prize given by the justice and peace group there.
His concluding comments give further food for thought: "It is sadly ironic that, as Ireland begins to recover from 30 years of violence . . . the Irish government is associating itself with NATO, a body which is armed to the teeth and devoted to ruthlessly pursuing the interest of great power and encouraging the export of weapons whose victims are the poor."
I appeal to the media to allow the Irish people to hear such statements. We deserve to, at the very least, hear both sides of the argument on what NATO and membership of the PfP really means. - Yours, etc.,
Joe Murray, Afri, Lower Rathmines Road, Dublin 6.