Not Such Good Friends

THIS is in response to letter writer Peadar O’Fiach’s hate-filled attack on me, “A U.S. Appreciation,” in the October 15-21 issue.

First, he claims that U.S. corporations, with the consent of the U.S. government, are helping the Irish. Doesn’t he know that corporations run the U.S. – they do not need consent from the government. Further, U.S. corporations would close their plants in Ireland and move to a Third World country if they could make more money.

O’Fiach also inferred that the Irish were permitted to immigrate to this country out of humanitarian concern by the U.S. government. Nonsense. The Irish were bodies to be used. They were forced to live in filthy, rat-infested tenements, and given the most menial jobs.

Our women cleaned houses, and our men were used as cannon fodder in war and were sent into abominably unsafe coal mines and factories where many died. We should be demanding reparations for the way our ancestors were exploited and abused.

Lastly, O’Fiach claims the U.S. treated the Irish better than the Jews. Well, let’s look at the record. Israel has received more than $100 billion from the U.S.; Ireland gets peanuts. Zionist propaganda has brainwashed O’Fiach into believing that Israel is an ally of the U.S.

This is my last word on the issue. I will not respond again, even if the keepers of O’Fiach consent to his writing another fact-challenged letter. I am too much of a gentlemen to continue to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed man.

Ton Lawler

Rockville, Maryland

Please, Cormac

CORMAC MacConnell is at it again. I didn’t get involved in the debate before the war started, but I would like to put on record my unswerving support for our troops serving in Iraq.

Cormac feels the war on terror is being lost, as he wrote in his column “Tears of a Soldier” in the November 19-25 issue. Saddam Hussein is no longer a threat to his own people, and just as important, he no longer is an unchecked madman plotting to do evil against the rest of the world.

War is not an easy thing. President Bush surely didn’t take the decision lightly, but despite all the negative media coverage, he did the right thing. 

Our brave men and women are doing America proud, and showing how our ideals of democracy and freedom can prevail if given a chance. No one said it would be easy, but in the end it will be worth it.

Jane Anne Murphy

Catskill, New York

Terrorism Within

THE U.S. economy is surely rebounding, and the stock market has responded feverishly.

The proactive strategy on terrorism has worked like a charm. The conspicuous absence of mainland terrorist attacks is a manifestation of these policies.

We have, for the first time, taken legislative steps towards reforming our Medicare system. 

Yet, Democrats search for areas of imperfection to exploit through a liberal media. The question is this – are the Democrats terrorists? Terrorists hurt innocent people to further their subjective causes. Is there any difference between the two?

Happy Holidays America!

Gregorio Macaluso

White Plains, New York

Bush Is No Kennedy

I LOOK back at John F. Kennedy’s three years in the White House as a bright, shining light in my life. Unlike today, when government has been demonized by the right-wing establishment in our country, there was enormous pride in public service, and many things seemed possible. 

The Kennedy administration had a sense of youth and purpose. President Kennedy stirred our passion and captured the commitment of those in the U.S. and beyond. When he was assassinated on November 22, 1963, not just a man died on that fateful day – but a dream shared by all mankind! 

Just eight days before he was shot, Kennedy announced the complete withdrawal of U.S. military personnel from Vietnam by the end of 1965 – a decision changed by Lyndon Johnson on November 24, just two days after the assassination. Had Kennedy lived, the disastrous U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia – which killed over two million people, including almost 60,000 Americans – would have definitely been avoided.

Unfortunately, Kennedy’s assassination inspired in me a permanent distrust of the right-wing power structure in our country (especially the CIA – a secret government within our government – and the FBI). Just two years earlier, in his January 1961 farewell address, President Eisenhower warned us about the never-ending greed of the military-industrial complex as the greatest threat to America’s freedom. In my opinion, Eisenhower has to rank as one of our finest presidents for the courage and candor of his address alone!

The CIA – an arm of the presidency – was in charge of the Vietnam War, as any vet can tell you, and the vexing questions that arose there can be understood by placing Vietnam in the context of this information.

Sad but true, 58,000 Americans and 2 million Asians lost their lives and our national economy was wrecked by a handful of men at the top of the U.S. Constitution and the people it was designed to protect.

Today, 40 years later, the military-industrial complex permeates every part of our society. Now we know why the Bush administration did not want diplomacy to work in its rush to war with Iraq. 

Obviously, war is business, and a no-war situation would have thwarted President Bush and the big corporations that have bankrolled his presidential campaign. The first two contracts for rebuilding postwar Iraq were awarded to Halliburton, Vice President Dick Cheney’s old employer, and to Bechtel, the Carlyle Group corporation connected to Bush, without any bidding. 

As I suspected before the war began last March, it’s not about weapons of mass destruction, the gassing of innocents, 9/11, Osama bin Laden or cruelty; it’s about oil and profits, after all. 

So while our working class troops are dying every day under the fiercest of attacks yet, Bush and Cheney are already doling out the spoils to the inner circle. What hubris! What gall! 

Finally, to the flag-waving talk-radio screamers, criticizing a bad president and bad policy is not undemocratic or disloyal and does not entail any lack of respect or concern for fighting men and women everywhere.

James V. Burke

Sayreville, New Jersey

Vote for Canavan!

me for festivities, a time for family and friends – and a time to destroy another British award ceremony.

Every year the main TV station in England runs a competition for “Sports Personality of the Year.” Every year, an Englishman wins.

In 1966, England won the World Cup. They still talk about it every time the team plays. Last month England won the rugby World Cup – we can’t allow them to talk forever about it!

This year, a great Irish football star won his first All-Ireland title. His name is Peter Canavan, and he should be sports personality of the year.

You can help make this happen, wherever you are in the world. It takes a minute to vote. Just click on the link following, and fill in the form on the right side of the screen:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tv_and_radio/sports_personality_2003/ 

I am a former Derry player in New York, and I would like to say well done to all involved with Derry’s fine win in the New York championship.

Mickey Donnelly

Magherafelt, Co. Derry

Northern Ireland