Thursday 14 November 2002

Annan Presses Bush to Avoid a Rush to War. Secretary General Kofi Annan said that the U.S. seemed to have a lower threshold for going to war in Iraq than the rest of the Security Council. By Patrick E. Tyler. [New York Times: NYT HomePage] How could anyone fail to be impressed with Kofi Annan's considered, moderate comments? And of course he is voicing agreat many people's perception when he speaks of an apparent war-at-all-costs agenda in the US. Long rule the UN! 9:22:07 AM  Your view

Return of Inspectors to Test Saddam [AP World News] Hopefully this is a good sign and a first step on the road to a peaceful resolution. I don't trust the US administration at all, however. Dubyoo's 'zero tolerance' comment smacks already of hoping for an opportunity to find something wrong with Iraq's response and launch the terrors of war. The coverage on television of Iraq's acceptance of the despicable UN resolution has also been heavily weighted on the side of suspicion towards Saddam, along with talk of trickery and deception and all the rest, whereas there was hardly a whimper about US cynical manipulation of the UN.       Strangely, the one voice of reason which I saw yesterday was on our Irish-language TV channel. There was a report and studio discussion about apparent disregard by the Irish government for our constitutional neutrality through its granting of landing rights for American military aircraft at Shannon airport. If the 'war' that all the commentators are telling us is inevitably on the way does materialise, then use of Shannon could mushroom into a very big issue here. It will be interesting to see future developments. 8:55:05 AM  Your view

		© Copyright 2002 Jim MacCormaic . Last update: 19/12/2002; 05:18:36 am .