Uneasy coalition of war and peace

WARMONGERING and peacemaking will become uneasy bedfellows today when US President George W Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern meet against a contradictory backdrop of the nightmare of war in Iraq and the dream of lasting peace in the North.

Belfast is the focus of world attention as the leaders of the Anglo-American axis begins a war summit culminating with a carefully stage-managed public relations exercise built around the most crucial milestone yet on the North’s tortuous path towards peace.

While the American forces may be moving with growing impunity through the suburbs of Baghdad, dismantling the tyrannical regime of Saddam Hussein, today’s meeting at Hillsborough Castle will take place behind security barriers, far removed from the protests of anti-war demonstrators.