Madam, - In welcoming President Bush to Ireland, John Lalor, Economics Spokesman of the Freedom Institute (June 26th), stated that his institute approved of Bush's economic policies as "morally sound and. . .prudent". This is an excellent example of ideology obscuring economic reality.
Leaving aside the invidious assertion that "a person's success and wealth is something they deserve" - implying, of course, that a person's poverty or lack of success is also something they deserve - I am surprised that an institute which advocates free markets and limited government should support President Bush. As we approach the end of Bush's four-year term, the US budget deficit is at record levels just below $500 billion. Early this year the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the deficit could reach $2.4 trillion over the next 10 years.
As regards free trade, the US administration's stance on tariffs on steel products and its failure to remove the Anti-Dumping Act preventing non-US companies selling below cost in the US, which was declared illegal by the World Trade Organisation in 2000, are hardly the acts of an administration committed to free trade.
Mr Lalor must appreciate that economics and its application in policy is more subtle than the bombastic Washington Consensus view espoused by his institute. Even by its own standards President Bush hardly seems an exemplar. - Yours, etc.,
DECLAN JORDAN, Douglas, Cork.
Madam, - It appears fashionable at present to demonstrate against American foreign policy and the supposed wrongdoings of President Bush. America, it would appear, is the only demon on the planet if one is to judge by large sections of the Irish media and the anti-war groups.
Where were the anti-al-Qaeda placards last weekend denouncing the barbaric actions of international terrorism? Have those who took to the streets throughout Ireland so quickly forgotten the slaughter of our Spanish neighbours in Madrid, innocent people travelling to work only to be killed and disfigured by an international terrorist group which will attack any culture or democratic country that takes a stance against it.
Democracies do not behead, mutilate, and bomb their citizens into silence. The anti-war movement and certain sections of the media would do well to remember this next time out. - Yours, etc.,
DANIEL NEW, Marina Village, Arklow, Co Wicklow.
Madam, - Could there by anything more pusillanimous than the Irish Government lining up alongside the Bush administration to attack Carole Coleman of RTÉ? I accept that we have to box clever in dealing with the Americans, particularly in dealing with the current administration whose insensitivity towards others is teamed with a ferociously heightened readiness to take umbrage themselves.
Nonetheless, there is realpolitik and realpolitik. To attack a journalist for doing not only a professional but an excellent job, solely in order to curry favour with Bush, Cheney, etc., is cowardly and cynical. The level of self-abasement is deeply humiliating to all Irish citizens.
If all Mr Ahern and Ms Harney have to offer is cant and scapegoating would it have been so difficult to refrain from comment altogether? - Yours, etc.,
COLETTE ROBINSON, Gracepark Gardens, Dublin 9.
Madam, - Some 56,000 homes destroyed, an estimated 30,000 people murdered since February 2003 and (according to a UN report) upwards of 300,000 people in danger of liquidation over the next year in the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Unfortunately for the victims of this ongoing atrocity the perpetrators are Arab militia attempting to expel black Africans from the Sudan.
Were it caused, directly or indirectly, by Israel or American action, it might qualify for worldwide protest. What a sad reflection on our society's values today. - Yours, etc.,
NICHOLAS KEYE, Landscape Park, Churchtown, Dublin 14.