In September 2001, as Chair of the Peace & Neutrality Alliance which was one of the very few organisations in Ireland opposed to the then coming invasion conquest and occupation of Afghanistan by the US Empire and its vassal states I was asked by the Irish Times to write an article entitled 'Justice, not revenge, is the way to peace' which was published in the paper on Wednesday 26 September 2001.

The Afghan War has been a disaster for the people of Afghanistan. Soon after the US Empire also invaded conquered and occupied Iraq, It has spread the war to Pakistan and it also continued to give total support to the Zionist State of Israel as it seeks to crush the people of Palestine into submission.

In these continuing wars of conquest and oppression the Irish political/media elite with its absolute commitment to the neo-liberal militarist ideology has backed the US Empire to the hilt, destroyed the long standing policy of neutrality by turning Shannon Airport into a de facto Airforce base, sent Irish troops to fight in them, so for the first time since the 1914-18 war Irish troops from all parts of Ireland are taking part in an imperial war. These wars and the ideology that underpins it have also caused rapidly growing poverty and Ireland, and in the US, 40 million of its citizens are on food stamps. We stand shoulder to shoulder with the US citizens and the British people that oppose these wars.

In Ireland the Irish corporate media in response to this growing crisis virtually excludes PANA. The major conference which we just organised on the topic of an Independent Irish Foreign Policy in which we went out of our way to include supporters of this imperial ideology was virtually ignored.

So let us be clear. It is now the intention of the political/media elite in Ireland to support the coming US war on Iran. If the get their way will be a war that will make the Afghan War look like a teddy bear's picnic. PANA and the Irish Anti War Movement have worked closely together for nearly a decade now. But unless we can build a stronger and more powerful alliance we will not be able to stop the war, or at the very least, prevent the use of Shannon Airport in the coming Iran War. We need more than ever to campaign on the issue of the use of Shannon Airport. The PANA/Shannonwatch demonstration on October 10 to mark the 9th anniversary of of the Afghan War needs to be the start of revitalising struggle against imperialism and the born-again Irish Redmondites that support it.

Here is a PDF copy of the original article.