Madam, - Maire Garvey (November 22nd) decries the general apathy towards the brutal sentence imposed on an unfortunate rape victim in Saudi Arabia and hopes that our Government will make a strong protest to the Saudis. Unfortunately, her call will probably fall on the deaf ears of a Government which is cravenly sycophantic to the Saudis' major ally, the US.
The obvious brutality of the Saudi regime exposes the US crusade for global democracy as phoney rhetoric. This clarion call is only used to justify such misadventures such as the Iraqi invasion and the ongoing vilification of the democratically elected President Chavez of Venezula.
What really drives US foreign policy, and thus by default EU foreign policy, is energy security and the maintenance of the system which allows wealth to be concentrated in the hands of the few.
It is no coincidence that at the recent Opec summit Saudi Arabia vetoed any discussion of changing the trade in oil from dollars to other currencies. With the US economy in such a fragile state, the prospect of oil being traded in euros could prove the final nail in its coffin.
Iran and Venezuela, two major oil producers pushing for this change, are also under constant attack from the US regime. - Yours, etc,
BARRY WALSH, Church Road, Blackrock, Cork.