Defence Minister cancels meeting with US Chief of Staff
Defence Minister Willie O’Dea today cancelled plans for a meeting with United States Joint Chief of Staff General Richard Myers.
Anti-war protesters had condemned the general’s visit to Dublin but a spokesman for the Department of Defence said the informal meeting would not now go ahead.
The spokesman insisted the engagement, due to be held this afternoon, had been arranged on a casual basis and official talks had not been organised.
“The position was that the minister was quite happy to meet General Myers, was he to be in Dublin this afternoon. It was that level of formality,” the spokesman said.
“If he was there Gen Myers would have dropped in, it was no firmer than that. But the minister is visiting troops in the Midlands and has been delayed.”
Mr O’Dea is visiting army units in Longford and Mullingar as part of his nationwide tour around all barracks. A number of troops from both the barracks are serving with the United Nations peace keeping force in Liberia.
Gen Myers is inspecting Irish troops at Collins Barracks, Kilmainham, and will hold discussions with his counterpart and head of Ireland’s defence forces Chief of Staff General Jim Sreenan in the Phoenix Park.
The spokesman for the Department of Defence said the primary reason for the visit was general to general, and a meeting with the minister would have been a courtesy call arranged on a casual basis.
But anti-war protesters, who gathered at Defence Forces headquarters in Phoenix Park, said no representative of the Irish State should be meeting with a member of the US military.
“This suggests a very high level of collusion between the Irish State and the US military machine,” he said.
“With the news that troop numbers at Shannon have doubled it suggests that the Irish Government is increasing collusion with the US at a time when the US invasion of Iraq has never been more discredited.”
“It is deeply concerning and it is an affront to Irish neutrality and shows a very high degree of contempt to the views of the majority of Irish people.”
