A chara, - Although An Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, asserted that the forthcoming European election could be used as an adequate consultation of the electorate regarding the Government's intention to join PfP, thereby making the referendum that he had promised unnecessary, it is passing strange that there is not a single mention of PfP in the Government's election manifesto as published a week ago in this newspaper.
Further, not a single pro-PfP politician has responded to Fintan O'Toole's revelation of what William J. Perry, US deputy secretary of defence (1993-94), and Bill Carter, assistant US secretary of defence for international security policy (1993-96), had to say about the purpose of PfP, as revealed in the recently published Preventative Defence. They were the brains behind PfP, and they state that the long-term aim is the effective abolition of a distinction between NATO and PfP.
Finally, only more outrageous than the fact that a serving Army officer has the gall to attempt to influence matters of policy, is the cowardly silence of politicians on the matter. - Yours, etc., Flann O Riain,
Ardan, Eatharlach, Co Thiobraid Arann.