Bush visit – Silence on US abuses will be wrong

As a visiting head of state, US President George W Bush will be accorded all the diplomatic courtesies that protocol demands he be afforded during his short visit to Ireland this weekend.

At an official level, his presence here will be attended with the due respect his office is entitled to and will reflect the goodwill and close friendship which has always existed between Ireland and America.

His visit here is not a courtesy one and, while it fortuitously coincides with an election year, the purpose of President Bush’s presence here is to attend the EU-US summit, which is being held as part of the Irish presidency of the European Union.

This summit practically heralds the end of what undoubtedly has been an extraordinarily successful Irish presidency, during which the historic agreement reached on an EU constitution was a key achievement.

Indirectly, the occasion of the summit will also mark a watershed in Irish attitudes to the American presidency, one which distinguishes fundamentally between the persona of the White House and the perceived integrity of American foreign policies as traditionally regarded and respected in this country.

George W Bush represents a challenge to that respect.

It has been manifested through disparate voices in Irish society which have expressed objection to his coming here, from members of the clergy and the legal profession, to politicians and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and anti-war protesters.

Most Irish people are deeply disturbed by the invasion of Iraq without UN sanction and what has been perpetrated since then in the name of liberation by the Bush administration.

The shocking incidents of violence, torture and degradation inflicted on detainees in Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison, plus the inhuman treatment of prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay, are anathema to the conscience of democracy.

Despite denials from the White House that such acts were officially sanctioned, they were condoned and encouraged at whatever level along the command chain, and condemned by the international community.

The Irish section of Amnesty International has urged Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to use his presidency of the EU to tell Mr Bush that international law must be obeyed.

It is impossible to disagree with Amnesty that with clear evidence of torture by US forces, and no limit on how high up the chain of command responsibility lies, the EU’s silence has been shameful and deafening.

Possibly that silence may be fractured during the summit, if a pledge made by Tánaiste Mary Harney is upheld. In the Dáil this week she said that the Government would make it clear to Mr Bush that Ireland and the European Union did not agree with him on many foreign policy issues.

Hopefully, that clarity will be delivered in terms as firm as diplomacy will allow.

The Tánaiste also told the Dáil that the security response to protests against the visit of the president would be “proportionate” to the need.

The term proportionate is a very subjective one, depending on which side of a riot shield, water cannon or tank the response is evaluated.

The protestors against this visit will face the might of the State in what is the biggest security operation ever mounted in this country.

It is frightening to consider the resources, both in manpower and equipment, which are at the disposal of the security forces this weekend.

While the Government may be concerned that protests may be manipulated by subversive elements, ordinary protestors have every right to protest, as long as it remains peaceful.