Why we do not want to be a US MILITARY OUTPOST.

international | anti-war / imperialism | opinion/analysis Friday July 25, 2003 19:09 by Tim Hourigan tim_hourigan at hotmail dot com

Just some of the reasons ireland said NO to Bush.

I originally wrote this for a group in Canada who are trying to prevent the US military from gaining access to the airport on Prince Edward Island in Canada.
I guess now is as good a time as any to publish it here.

WHY WE DO NOT WANT TO BE A US MILITARY OUTPOST.
by Tim Hourigan

When ireland became a link in a military chain, we didn't just help to inflict horrific violence on strangers in far away places, we also sacrificed our own sovereignty, rule of law, civil rights, the security and safety of our citizens, and the accountability of our elected representatives. These are some of the less obvious victims of ireland's assistance to the US-led invasion of Iraq.

(While protesting the presence of the US military at Shannon my friends and I have been on the receiving end of some harsh criticism. "You're soft on Saddam", "You're just anti-American" "you wouldn't be allowed to do this in Baghdad", "You're making Shannon a target".
Of course our accusers won't stand for counter argument.
I didn't supply weapons, money or beef to Saddam Hussein's regime. The US, UK and Irish Governments can't honestly say that.
Some of my best friends are American, and I spent some of last week with Ramsey Clark, former US attorney general, and Scott Ritter, a former US
Marine and Weapons Inspector. Granted, I don't like Bush & Co, but that leaves 99% of the population that I would gladly shake hands with.
I wouldn't be allowed to protest in Baghdad, maybe so. But in little old ireland people have been restricted from protesting the war, some even arrested for peaceful protest.
As for making Shannon a target, that's got to be the worst joke yet.
While our own government was denying it all and our media looked the other way, the papers in the US were writing fluff pieces about US troops enjoying the welcome in ireland en route to the Gulf. But of course, terrorists don't
read US newspapers, only Irish ones.)

In the midst of all the jingoistic war cries it was considered rude to raise the reasons why we should refuse the US military access to Shannon, a civilian airport in a supposedly neutral and independent country.
Like many other outposts, we had to learn the lessons for ourselves.
We do not want the blood of innocent Iraqis on our hands but the stain is there regardless.
We gave runways, fuel and airspace to Bush's war machine so we must bear some of the blame for the loss of innocent life, the destruction of the
infrastructure and poisoning of the eco-system of Iraq with 'Depleted' Uranium.
And, of course, we helped to move some of those 18 yr old US
troops off to a living hell under false pretences. The reality long outlives
the hype.
The presence of the US military makes Shannon a target for violent
reprisal. Parking military flights between civilian airlines makes
human shields of the civilians using Shannon. (This is in fact a war crime
under article 8 (2) (b) (xxiii) of the Rome Conference on the International
Criminal Court)
If Irish citizens can be considered expendable in order to accommodate
Washington's wishes then we have lost any sense of accountability from
our elected representatives and have become nothing more than a useful
outpost for Bush's war machine.
Some of the military flights scheduled to land at Shannon declared
emergencies on approach. When the emergency crews got to the aircraft,
they were met by soldiers with automatic rifles who refused them entry and
dealt with the fire themselves. It seems the secrecy of the cargo was more
important than the safety of Shannon town and the brave men and women
who answered that mayday call. (We don't know what was on that plane but it
had no business at a civilian airport if the military would rather lose it
than disclose it.)
Recently obtained government documents reveal that missiles, guns and
ammunition have been passing through our airports and airspace on a
regular basis.
This introduces a creeping corruption into the emergency services.
Under pressure to allow this practice they have to keep silent, disregard
basic rules of safety at the airport and stand by while hazardous cargo sits
so close to the terminal. The police are then ordered into the middle of
all this. While turning a blind eye to war crimes, they are told to keep
peaceful protestors at bay and turn the airport into a police state
(in 2002 there were 30 Gardai / Police at Shannon. Now there
are 140, plus the 12th battalion of the army)

(The culture of secrecy was so bad that it took the establishment of a
peace camp to shine a light on what was really going on there. People
lived on the side of the road keeping vigil and recording the transit of
military personnel and cargo flights.)

Like peace activists in the USA and elsewhere, we have found our civil
liberties restricted. Peaceful protests at the airport are being pushed
further and further back. The police invoke laws that don't exist to
justify this, and refuse to apply the laws which do exist. More than a
dozen people are now banned from the county. (note: one photographer
was assaulted and arrested and had his film confiscated because the
authorities didn't like his pictures, two of us were arrested for holding a
banners, and 10 people were arrested for a sit down protest, - including 2
minors, an Iraqi woman and her Irish husband.)
The airport is a public place and our Constitution guarantees us the right to assemble and protest peacefully in a public place, Yet on more than one occasion the police have prevented this from happening.
We now have the police, Irish army and fire service deployed with guns
and water cannons to deter us from protesting, while behind them weapons of war move on unhindered. Planespotting has been "discouraged". The law is
clear on this and yet no arrests or weapons inspections are made.
Undermining the law is a dangerous thing for a democracy.
The local community has become polarised. loyalties have been split along economic lines. Some of the airport workers who opposed the war were afraid to speak out for fear of reprisal.
It is not even clear what the economic benefit is. We sell some fuel and duty-free, but we've also been subsidising the war effort by paying aviation fees that the military refused to pay (about 1 MILLION EURO per annum)
On top of that, we have the staggering cost of increased security at the airport. Someone is making money, but it doesn't look good for the taxpayer. We have yet to see if Iraqi citizens can sue us for assisting the illegal invasion of their country and slaughter of their relatives.
Our foreign policy now appears to be dictated from Washington.
Despite the upheaval this country went through to break away from the British Empire, our new leaders have sold us once more into servitude. Countries that admired us for our independent, anti-imperial history musty now shake their heads in sadness. I think especially of those smaller middle-eastern countries that welcomed the appointment of ireland to a temporary seat
on the UN security council only to see us tip our cap in deference to the US and UK warmongers. Decades of trust has been thrown away.
The US military claims to defend democracy, not to practice it. A foreign power will use our territory as it fits their needs, not as it fits our laws. to believe otherwise is to ignore history.

(The denials made by the Irish Foreign Minister in relation to the possible illegal transit of weapons through Shannon are similar to those of
Prime Minister Zenko Suzuki of Japan when trying to defuse the scandal of US nuclear weapons being carried on US ships in Japanese ports.)