PRESIDENT Joe Biden is visiting Ireland. Proud of his Irish heritage, he wants to be with us all here in celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement.
We are extremely grateful for the contribution of American Presidents and successive American State Departments and many others who saw the need for peace and helped to bridge the seemingly unbridgeable gulfs between Unionism and Nationalism through intense negotiation and reasonable compromise.
One Irish peacemaker, John Hume, saw the need to spread this message to help end other global conflicts and in his address to the EU Parliament in 1998 on receiving the Nobel Peace Prize said: "We (the European Union) should not be sending armies abroad, we should be sending a philosophy of peace." Unfortunately, the EU/NATO prefer to be a regional military power and agreed to allocate €7.95 billion between 2021 and 2027 to developing their arms manufacturing industries.
As political, religious and community leaders gather in Belfast, some may wonder at the shocking double standards that seem to characterise EU and US foreign policy makers. Do they believe that spreading a philosophy of peace must be based on geopolitical factors?
If pursuing a ceasefire and negotiations to end the war in Ireland is to be celebrated as it should, how much more important would it be to advocate the same philosophy in the horrific war now raging between Russia and NATO in the Ukraine.
Roger Cole,
Chair, Peace & Neutrality Alliance,
Dalkey Business Centre, Dalkey, Co. Dublin.
Do you have something to say on this issue? If so, submit a letter for publication to Conor McParland at c.mcparland@belfastmedia.com or write to Editor Anthony Neeson at Andersonstown News/North Belfast News, Teach Basil, 2 Hannahstown Hill, Belfast BT17 0LT
