Neutrality as a weapon of mass deception

I WELCOME Foreign Minister Brian Cowen’s admission (Irish Examiner, October 21) that Ireland is not a neutral country.

For too long the debate about Irish neutrality has been used as a weapon of mass deception, confusion and deceit by those who have very little idea what they are talking about.

The internationally-accepted definition of neutrality is non-participation in a war between other states, the maintenance of an impartial attitude towards the belligerents and, during peacetime, not doing anything which would make neutrality impossible during wartime.