Monday 17 June 2002

Ireland on their way home from the World Cup  Ah well, the party's over. I watched the match against Spain with a few friends on Sunday. Spain's early (and too-easy) goal was upsetting, and the Irish performance between then and half time was once again uninspiring. But, also once again, Mick McCarthy displayed his ability to instil spirit into the team. They outplayed Spain in the second half and were very unlucky not to score a decisive winner. Of course, Ian Harte's unfortunate missed penalty will probably never be forgotten (though the missed rebound was perhaps even worse). We were very impressed with the referee, whose astute award of the last-minute penalty for shirt-pulling was really astute.       The thirty minutes of extra time were nail-biting in the extreme, especially since the first team to score would go through without the need to play the entire 30 minutes. But, despite brave efforts and near misses, it wasn't to be, and the resulting penalty shoot-out had us screaming at the television in disbelief as three of our shots were either missed or saved. And so the great World Cup adventure comes to an end. Well done, though, to the Irish team -- and to the great fans who once again did us proud.       So now it's virtually straight in to the next international campaign and the road to Portugal 2004 and the European Championships. Come on Ireland! 12:43:01 PM  Your view

Bush's Anti-Hussein Measures Applauded by Lawmakers. Top congressional leaders today applauded the president's approval of new covert operations to topple Iraq's leader and urged further action if such efforts fail. By Reuters. [New York Times: NYT HomePage] The 'thinking' behind all this is fascinating, apparently amounting to a decision that anybody else would be bettre than Sadam. Do these ivory-tower advisers and planners ever learn from the lessons of history? What about previous US backing of the Taliban on the lines of the 'my enemy's enemy is my friend' theory? This whole interventionist thing is totally disgusting, as are the reports that Dubyoo apparently thinks it auite all right to launch so-caled pre-emptive attacks on other independent states. How is this justifiable when something like the Japanese attack on Pearl harbour is stilll considered to be cowardly and reprehensible? The double standards in force here are quite terrifying. 12:34:53 PM  Your view

Arafat Slams Rice for Comments. Yasser Arafat blasted U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice on Monday for comments condemning his Palestinian Authority, saying she has no right to dictate to Palestinians how their future state should look. [AP World News] I should think so, too! The sheer arrogance of the Israeli and US position is impossible to justify. Yasser Arafat is the legitimately elected leader of the Palestinian Authority, and must be recognised as such until such time as the Palestinians themselves decide otherwise. 12:25:44 PM  Your view

		© Copyright 2002 Jim MacCormaic . Last update: 29/09/2002; 06:03:05 am .