"45 nations back US" - are we one of them?

davej

Articles like this one are reporting that the US has 30 nations which openly support it's impending invasion of Iraq. While another 15 countries have privately given their support:

"We now have a coalition of the willing that includes some 30 nations who publicly said they could be included in such a listing," Mr. Powell said. "And there are 15 other nations, for one reason or another, who do not wish to be publicly named but will be supporting the coalition."

I'm wondering is Ireland one of the 15 ? If we continue to allow the US to use Shannon (which according to ireland.com we are) would this mean that Colin Powell has put us on his list of 15 ?


davej

davej

Also just saw this on ireland.com :

"Labour TD Mr Michael D Higgins said the Taoiseach's decision to talk about "regime change" when he spoke in Washington last week indicated Mr Ahern's "tacit agreement" with the US ."

Now while Mr. Higgins isn't the most objective of commentators on this issue, it seems to me to be very likely that we have given our tacit support to the US.

davej

gandalf

From the comments I've received from Seamus Brennen I would count Ireland as one of the other 15. If so its typical of this governemtn to hide their true position on this situation until the last minute.

Gandalf.

bug

I heard this on Euronews this morning. Its all being kept very quiet, how can we get them to come out on this issue? Do you think it will come out in the Oireachtas tommorrow? One thing I have to say about Michael D- he's very vocal and this is a positive attribute in the dail.

davej

I see this story got some prominence on RTE news last night. Apparently Bertie "presumes" we are one of the 15 !

In our own small way we have made a similar choice to the Americans:

Putting the future of our economy first.

The Weapons of Mass destruction rhetoric is the biggest red herring since the "domino theory" of the cold war era.

davej

ReefBreak

Personally, I actually hope we are one of the 15 "secret" nations. [Ducks]

Shinji

That's 45 GOVERNMENTS, not 45 "nations".

bug

Apparently Bertie "presumes" we are one of the 15 !

Ah god love 'im does he not know:rolleyes: Poor little boy will no-one talk to him in the international community anymore? WHAT TF DOES HE MEAN PRESUMES:mad:

I am sick to the teeth of him dodging questions and trolling out stats in reply to opposition questions in the Dail. How can we pin this guy down and get a straight answer.

And another thing -Where are they conducting these polls about shannon? a small group of people in Shannon? Strange that the day after Marian Finucane's radio poll, they did a vote in the cabinet on whether to let the US use Shannon and came out and said the country is approx 50/50 pro and against. I spoke to someone from a political party off the record who said that they think these polls are being fixed. I would like to have a vote on this issue. And I want Bertie to come out one way or another and tell his people where we stand.

Victor

Originally posted by bug
And another thing -Where are they conducting these polls about shannon? a small group of people in Shannon? Strange that the day after Marian Finucane's radio poll, they did a vote in the cabinet on whether to let the US use Shannon and came out and said the country is approx 50/50 pro and against. I spoke to someone from a political party off the record who said that they think these polls are being fixed. I would like to have a vote on this issue. And I want Bertie to come out one way or another and tell his people where we stand.

You can expect most of the media based (mostly radio show) and internet based polls to be ballot-stuffed. I would only have reasonable confidence in the independant polls carried out by professionals.