Action will have grave risks but turning away could be even riskier

ALTHOUGH it is not immediately obvious to me why the Irish Congress of Trade Unions should take up a position on the war in Iraq, I am glad that ICTU’s general secretary, David Begg, has done so.

Begg is one of the more thoughtful figures in Irish public life, he is humane and sincere, and his words command respect.

He presents the anti-war case well and articulates it most effectively from a humanitarian standpoint, which is no more than you would expect from a former chief executive of Concern. He warns that 16 million people are depending on the UN Oil-for-Food programme, which could collapse in the event of war. He reminds us that Iraq is a country of 13 million children, 500,000 of whom are acutely malnourished or underweight. And he forecasts that four million people will be displaced by the war and hundreds of thousands will be killed.