IT’S considered bad form to speak ill of the dead, but I must make an exception regarding US Army General William Westmoreland, who passed away at the age of 91 on July 18.

WRITE me off as a hard-bitten former naval infantryman, but recent published reports of George Bush landing at campaign stops in the presidential helicopter to piped-in music from the movie Top Gun has got to be some kind of sick joke.

AS a former US Marine living in Ireland I was saddened to learn of Bob Hope’s passing.