Sir - Lt Gen Gerry McMahon in his lengthy opinion piece (May 14th) accuses the Green Party, amongst others, of "spreading misinformation" in relation to Partnership for Peace.
Firstly, Lt Gen McMahon's arguments must be taken in context: he himself approves of NATO and stated, on RTE's Prime Time, that he felt Ireland should have been in NATO from the start of the Cold War. This is a worrying admission from the former Chief of Staff of a neutral state. Since Lt Gen McMahon has no problems with the nuclear-weapons based NATO alliance, his denials of PfP/NATO links are not very reassuring.
Lt Gen McMahon accuses the anti-PfP lobby of confusing people by saying "that joining PfP is the same as joining NATO". "Nothing could be further form the truth," he continues. The Green Party has not argued this but we have made it clear that PfP is a NATO body. As Bill Clinton said in November 1996, PfP membership is "a path to full NATO membership for some and a strong lasting link to the Alliance for all". At the launch of PfP in 1994, NATO itself described PfP as assisting the expansion of NATO. If Lt Gen McMahon truly wants a genuine debate on PfP, he must address these points. He hasn't. It's obvious that NATO and the PfP are inextricably linked. As Lt Gen McMahon admits, the agreement to join PfP is negotiated directly with NATO. What he doesn't say is that the PfP itself operates under the authority of the North Atlantic Council, NATO's supreme body, which is chaired by the NATO Secretary General.
But perhaps the Lt General's most extraordinary statement is in relation to Bosnia. He contends that in Bosnia, Irish troops now under NATO command, are under a "serious and potentially dangerous disadvantage" because we are not privy to intelligence given only to PfP members! Is NATO willing to put Irish soldiers lives at risk because we haven't joined the PfP! If this is true, then the Government should withdraw our soldiers immediately. Irish soldiers have never been put at such risk when under UN command. If the Lt General's "logic" is followed through, then we should surely join NATO for only then would we get really "detailed information" (according to Lt Gen McMahon) to ensure the safety of our soldiers.
The Green Party believes that the UN should be the only partnership for peace that Ireland is a member of. There are over 140 UN countries which are not members of PfP. If we truly believe in international and democratic peacekeeping, then we should strengthen the UN, and not allow NATO via the PfP to usurp the UN's role.
The MRBI/Irish Times poll has just revealed that 71 per cent of the people want a referendum on Ireland joining the PfP. Yet the Government persists in ignoring, not just public opinion, but its own pre-election promises to hold a referendum. The Greens have consistently called for the people to decide this vital issue. What are Fianna Fail, the PDs and Fine Gael afraid of? And is the Labour Party in favour of or against PfP? Only the Green Party is for both the democratic right to decide the issue and for the PfP to be rejected by the electorate. A partnership for peace can never be a partnership with NATO. - Yours, etc.
John Gormley, T.D. Dail Eireann, Dublin 2.