By John Spain 

THE security surrounding President George W. Bush’s visit to Ireland over the weekend was extraordinary. It was the biggest ring of steel ever mounted here, with more than 3,500 Gardai (police), 2,500 troops and a huge convoy of military vehicles drafted into the Shannon region, particularly around theairport and Dromoland Castle where Bush stayed and the brief European Union/U.S. summit took place. 

Irish Navy gunships and Garda speedboats patrolled the coastline and river estuary. There was special air cover in place, augmented by a couple of U.S. Black Hawk-type helicopters. Radar and air traffic control centers were under armed guard. 

A wing of Limerick Hospital was on standby with U.S.-approved facilities. There were checkpoints and closed roads all over the area. And everywhere you looked there were guys with short haircuts talking up their sleeves.

Last week there had been security checks on all those who live or work in the area, requiring them to give personal details and to carry a pass when moving around. Water cannons were brought in to hose down demonstrators. 

In the event, of course, it all proved to be way over the top. Which was no surprise to me. It might be necessary to have such a huge security operation to protect President Bush if his one-night stopover was in Baghdad. But not in Ireland, and certainly not in the beautiful isolated countryside around Dromoland. 

It was even more unnecessary here because it had been quite clear in the days before the visit that the predicted mass demonstrations were never going to materialize. Which is precisely what happened. The whole thing was a damp squib, a total failure for the anti-Bush brigade here. 

Only a few thousand demonstrators turned up, divided into several groups. For the most part, they were the usual collection of students, alternative lifestylers, misfits and drop-outs, chanting simplistic slogans and getting all emotional about something they have not studied enough to understand. 

It’s all black and white as far as they are concerned. Bush is the devil incarnate. America is the Evil Empire. It’s all simple. So there’s no need for any debate on the complexities of what is actually going on now in Iraq, about where we go from here. 

But whatever one thinks of the initial U.S. decision to invade (and there are a great many people here who did support and still support the American action), reasoned debate is now more necessary than ever. Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern, in his EU presidency role, did make the general unhappiness of people in Europe about Abu Ghraib known to Bush in their private meeting. But then the debate moved on to where we go from here and how Europe might help. 

At this stage most of us here realize that demos and simple slogans will not do anything to help the people of Iraq. We have to deal with the situation we are in now, not whine about mistakes that have been made in the past. 

And in spite of the behavior of some American troops, the situation in Iraq is not nearly as black and white as the protestors imagine. 

Perhaps the initial decision to invade was misguided, since weapons of mass destruction have not been found. Perhaps the Iraqi people should have been left to rot under Saddam and his sadistic sons forever. One can argue about these things and everyone has a view. 

But is anyone seriously suggesting, as the protestors imply, that the Iraqi people would be better off if Saddam was still in power? Is anyone seriously suggesting that the Americans should pull out all the troops now, just as sovereignty is handed over and security is more vital than ever? 

That fact is that the anti-war demonstrators here — like their comrades in the U.S. and elsewhere —- are out of touch. Increasingly they are being left behind by events. 

Since the UN decision to support the interim process (with the support even of critics like France and Germany) and now the formal transfer of sovereignty, the debate has moved on. 

In spite of all the carnage of the past week, the situation in Iraq is evolving. Following the sovereignty transfer, we are now tantalizingly close to the ultimate goal, free and fair elections and the introduction of democracy. 

Which is why the last few days have been such a bloodbath. We can expect more of the same in the coming weeks and months as the Islamic militants, many of them not Iraqi at all, step up the carnage to disrupt the process. The Iraqi interim government said last week that they want to hold elections sooner rather than later, possibly as early as November. 

If that can be achieved, it is just possible that the present situation will be transformed. Introducing democracy in Iraq, hoping that it will then spread throughout the region, may still seem like an impossible dream. 

But the question the anti-war brigade should now be asking themselves is whether it is a dream worth striving for. At this stage it would be a lot more useful than shouting abuse. 

But in spite of the feeble level of the demos here, one can understand why the Irish government was being ultra-careful about security. Thanks to the war, Bush is very much a target. 

But deploying such a huge security force at Shannon played into the hands of the anti-war brigade by implying that half the country might be on the march. In the event, apart from the usual loonies, no one came. 

As for the summit itself, it was a brief affair with just an hour or so of round table talks. It would be a mistake to think, however, that nothing was achieved. 

As is usual, all the detailed work had been done in advance and the work of the summit itself was simply to have the two leaders (with Ahern representing the EU) signing off on positions and agreements. 

On Iraq, the countries of Europe have differences as well as common policies. Much of the heat has gone from the debate following the UN backing of the interim government, as the statements made after the summit show. 

Most of the discussion now centers on the detail of how reconstruction should proceed, both political and economic. And there is the wider NATO question of which EU countries might take up some of the security burden. 

This is critical for the Americans, and particularly for Bush as the election approaches. Talk is cheap. Putting boots on the ground is the test, and so far most European countries prefer the safety of sitting on the fence. 

Ireland is not part of NATO (we’re much too pure for that) and there is little chance that we will be involved in any security force in Iraq, unless that happens under the UN flag. But there is one crucial field in which we could help. 

That is by providing assistance in teaching Iraqi officials how to hold elections, organize polling stations, count votes and so on, and then by acting as impartial observers of the election itself. Irish officials and parliamentarians have filled this role before in other trouble spots around the world and we have a lot of expertise in this area. 

Of course the other major part of the summit was concerned with trade. The U.S. and the EU are the two largest trading blocks in the world and trade between them is now valued at an incredible $1 billion a day. 

Around four million people in the U.S. and another four million in the EU are now directly dependent on this trade for their jobs. It is estimated that a further four million people have jobs that service the eight million directly employed in the trading companies. 

At the Shannon summit a deadline was agreed for further reducing trade barriers between the U.S. and the EU and also for getting the next round of the world trade talks, which collapsed last year in Mexico, going again. Plus there was progress on how the two blocks can push forward the international fight against AIDS and on other issues. 

All told, in spite of it being a very brief visit by Bush, this was an important summit meeting. To see it simply as an attempt by Bush to capture some of the Irish vote in U.S. is both cynical and ignorant: the fact is that these summits between the U.S. and the EU are now held every couple of years, either in the U.S. or in the home country of whichever EU nation happens to hold the EU presidency at the time. And at the moment that is Ireland. 

That is why George Bush was here. And he was welcome here as far as most people were concerned. 

It is still possible that history will vindicate him. It is still possible that the Iraqi people will grasp the chance now being given to them and that the tiny minority of violent Islamic extremists in Iraq will not succeed in taking that chance away from them. 

It is still possible that this U.S. president who talks in disjointed simplicities and garbles his sentences may after all have the one big Idea that works. And if that is the case, he won’t need a ring of steel around him if he comes back here to visit us in a few years.