Madam, - Chris Megraw (November 6th) is tired of the critical response to George Bush's "re-election" in America. He suggests that had we been subjected to a 9/11 here in Ireland we would be likely to opt for a "gung ho, let's go" type like George W.
However, if Ireland has any genius to offer to the world in these troubled times, it is in its illustration of what can be achieved through talk as embodied in the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement - a genius that it shares in this regard with its erstwhile enemy, Great Britain. And indeed it is a genius that was realised only after centuries of utterly futile imperialist/terrorist tit for tat.
Give me the talkers any day. - Yours, etc.,
JACK HEALY,
St Luke's,
Cork.
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Madam, - Those who have written to you to celebrate the Republican Party's dominance in the US election should note that all the major urban areas overwhelmingly voted to send Mr Bush back to Texas. Since it is unlikely that al-Qaeda is planning to attack Killiney, Dublin or Hickory, North Carolina, the residents of these places can afford to be wrong about who is better equipped to wage the supposed War on Terror. We in North American cities would rather have had Mr John Kerry building alliances and extending a hand to those who would see us as Christian Crusaders.
It is apparent that aggressive military offensives serve only to recruit militants; that counter-intelligence, negotiation, economic development and alleviating grievances provide more efficient and less brutal paths to peace. - Yours, etc.,
EMER KELLY,
Cambridge,
Massachusetts,
USA.
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Madam, - Now that George Bush has been elected with such a clear majority, I had hoped his detractors would crawl back under the stones from whence they had emerged before the election.
But not a bit of it.They are still banging on as if nothing had happened and they were right all along and that the result was all a big mistake. What arrogance!
One consolation, though: they can always be sure that if their rights to express their cockeyed opinions are ever under threat, they can call on the same Americans to come to their rescue. - Yours, etc.,
JOHN BARRY,
Walnut Avenue,
Dublin 9.
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Madam, - According to Mark Steyn (Opinion, November 8th) it was "guns and God" that carried the day for President Bush.
Is it not ironic that Osama bin Laden would presumably claim the support of this same constituency? - Yours, etc.,
DONAL MORRISSY,
Ballyvaughan,
Co Clare.
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Madam - The results of various referendums that were run simultaneously with the main event may explain why the American public re-elected President Bush.
Californians, while superficially Democrat, remain happy to jail an already twice-convicted felon for 25 years for, say, shoplifting, under their insane Three Strikes law.
Meanwhile, 11 states chose to ban same-sex marriage.
One could go on. Suffice to say that, while the US may be an extremely religious country, it remains a profoundly unchristian one. - Yours, etc.,
DENIS MORTELL,
Liberty Lane
Dublin 8.