[Cicero]

The Minister may well be telling the truth, that there was no formal appointment set up and he had other business.

If so, then I think he must make an effort to see General Myers anyway, to dispel any impression that he was knuckling under to protestors. That impression should not be allowed to stand.

[elc]

... to dispel any impression that he was knuckling under to protestors. That impression should not be allowed to stand.

Ireland has done a somewhat decent job of standing up to protestors of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Shannon airport is a pivotal stop for a military planes going to Iraq. The Irish government has constantly faced protests demanding they stop allowing our planes to stop there. And they have yet to buckle. Interestingly, I was in Shannon airport about 2 years ago, and I kid you not, it was straight out of the Budweiser Superbowl commercial (I think it was Bud) - hundreds of people in the international terminal applauding our troops as they came off their plane.

Just in the past couple of weeks, Ireland and the US signed a bilateral agreement allowing the CIA to questions Irish citizens on Irish soil. From what I understand from my friends there, a lot of people raised holy hell about this, but the Irish government went through with it anyway.

Fine Gael and Fianna Fail are in a tough situation. Most of the Irish citizens are adamantly anti-war and Sinn Fein claims a long history of neutrality. Apparently, they conviently forget Irish Republican support of Nazis. That said, SF is the fastest growing political party in Ireland, and members of FG and FF are politians looking after their jobs. If they show too much open support of the UK and US, SF will seize the opportunity to drive them out of power. FG and FF may not be the best, but they are certainly better, and they certainly would provide us more support, than the socialist SF.