Ever
since the Colombia 3 surfaced in Ireland, pundits,
editorialists, and politicians have competed to
see who could write or say the stupidest things.
For example, "The Colombia 3 are fugitives
from justice in Colombia." How can one be a
fugitive from something that doesn't exist? Were
the Jews who rose against Nazi killers in Warsaw,
Poland, breaking the law? If Jews and their friends
in the resistance had managed to rip up the tracks
leading to Auschwitz and other concentration camps,
would they have been guilty of destroying property
belonging to the Third Reich? Or take the case of
the Vietnamese-napalmed, saturated with Agent Orange,
their villages destroyed, their jungles turned to
dead wood, their children turned into drug addicts
and prostitutes. Were the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese
violating international law when they fought to
save their country from total destruction?
Apparently,
George W. Bush and friends are going to throw a
terrible tantrum if Ireland fails to return the
Colombia 3 to die in South America. If I were Bertie
Ahern, which I'm not of course, I would agree to
Mr. Bush's demands, but only after the United States
releases all of the twelve thousand prisoners it
is holding in Iraq; only after the U.S. stops torturing
prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Cuba; and only
after Mr. Bush ends the occupation of Iraq, gives
up the idea of arming the heavens (Star Wars), and
announces that he does not want to design and deploy
a new generation of atomic weapons.
Once
these demands are met, I would insist that Colombia
disband its death squads, jail right-wing paramilitaries
who have murdered thousands of innocent people,
and create a judicial system that is fair, impartial,
and free from corruption.
"Those
who harbor terrorists," say Mr. Bush and company,
"support terrorism." In that case, the
resident in the White House is one of the world's
most ardent supporters of terrorism. He and his
supporters have tried to terrorize the Cuban people
into overthrowing their government. They have attempted
to terrorize Iraq into becoming a client state in
the American empire. They support dictatorial governments
that terrorize their own people in Egypt, Pakistan,
China, and parts of Africa. They have attempted
to terrorize the American people into accepting
their violent assault on our environment, claiming
that destroying old-growth forests, poisoning our
air and food supplies with mercury, drilling for
oil and gas in pristine countryside is, in some
perverse way, essential to winning the "war
on terror." They have used fear to intimate
opponents of their fanatical, anti-conservative,
agenda, implying that anyone who dares question
their program for the world is unpatriotic and,
quite possibly, supports terrorism.
One
of the most absurd arguments for extraditing the
three Irishmen who escaped from Colombia is that
if the Irish government fails to do so, it will
be condoning terrorism and undermining the peace
process in Northern Ireland. As an American citizen
living under constant threat from lunatics who want
to kill my children in order to create a better
world, I strongly object to this ridiculous argument.
Instead of focusing on three men who managed to
avoid being murdered in Colombia, the United States
and Irish governments ought to look closely at attacks
by loyalists on Catholics in Belfast and other communities.
Rather than trying to contrive comparisons between
the IRA and Islamic fundamentalists, (the last time
I looked. Osama bin Laden was not a spokesperson
for the Provisional IRA), those who claim to care
about peace and social justice in the North of Ireland
might want to find ways to jail gangsters who profit
from selling death to Irish children.
People
who call for the extradition of the Colombia 3 are
entitled to their views, but please don't try to
bolster your arguments by quoting one of the most
violent, intolerant, dangerous men in the world.
Mr. Bush lied about the war in Iraq and he continues
to lie while increasing numbers of American soldiers
come home in body bags or suffering from serious
wounds. In Crawford, Texas, Cindy Sheehan has been
camped out for nearly two weeks just down the road
from Mr. Bush's ranch. She wants to meet with the
commander in chief to ask why he sent her son, and
the sons and daughters of other mothers, to die
in Iraq. Mr. Bush is on vacation, fishing, bike
riding, watching movies, apparently too busy to
meet with a grieving mother who is pleading that
this useless, unnecessary, un-winnable war in Iraq
end now.
The
resident in the White House has no right to demand
that Ireland extradite three of its citizens to
a country that terrorizes its own people. Mr. Bush
does not have the moral imperative to ask, let alone
to order, other nations to concede to his wishes.
Let's hope that the Colombia 3 will be a wakeup
call to the Irish people. G. W. Bush, the emperor
without clothes, believes that he has the God-given
right to expand the American empire. Ireland is
just another pawn in his grandiose vision of a world
run by and for and about a super wealthy American
oligarchy. Fortunately, he does not speak for ordinary
American people, even though the media, here and
in Ireland, would have us believe that is the case.
