Stephen Cleghorn of US military families against the war speaks to IAWM in Liberty Hall. 

    Tonight, Wednesday Feb 18, Stephen Cleghorn, stepfather of a US troop serving in Iraq, spoke to about 200 people from the Irish anti-war movement and members of the general public.  The meeting was hosted by Richard Boyd Barret (SWP) and there were also talks from Tim Hourigan (unaffiliated), and Michael O'Brien (SP).
    Stephen, who is from near Washington, was giving his 4 th speech of the day in Dublin after others in Trinity & UCD. 2 are planned for tomorrow in Belfast, 2 in Derry the following day and 1 in Galway on Saturday. Stephen served in Vietnam so he knows about war. He described how back then, the drop in army moral due to huge worldwide protests was a major factor in the US army pulling out. At one stage corporals didn't even ask troops to remove pictures of Vietnamese dead from their quarters, since it didn't shock any more. He talked of how conscription was in a way better than the current non-conscription "voluntary" membership of the US army since it took a wider cross-section of the classes in society (except for G. Bush Jnr), instead of the current system where poorer classes are more represented.
    He says many US troops just don't want to be in Iraq, but by nature of their profession, have to do what they're told.  His aim is to "Support our troops and bring them home".   People have pointed out to him that this sounds contradictory, until he points out that it wasn't the troops decision to go to Iraq, just George Bush and the Republican government's, which he is firmly against.
    Stephen mentioned that one of the things troops on the ground are instructed to do is to respond to any perceived threat with "overwhelming force". So if a group of troops heard fire from a house all of them would shoot back with their M16s, move in the Bradley fighting vehicles and virtually demolish the house. This has he says resulted in the deaths of mothers and children once soldiers investigate the aftermath, but the advantage of so many people firing on the house is that blame cannot be apportioned to one individual soldier, thereby "lessening the guilt".
    He spoke of how important it is to convince particularly pro-war people that what is going on now is wrong, in order to build up a huge base of protestors for the March 20th demonstrations and to change the electorates mind on who the good/bad guys are. He talked of the US governments desire for a global empire, although they prefer to call it a "Benevolent Global Hegemony" .... When people accused him of being ani-American he just tells them that dissent is one of the most American things you can do. He talked of other soldiers who refuse to serve in Iraq. Stephen Funk is currently in jail for 6 months for his conscientious objection. He knows of a general who organised a strike in the 1st Gulf War and has spent 6 years in prison because of it.

Tim Hourican
  Tim who is still planewatching in Shannon talked of some civilian looking jets still having police guards, doubtlessly Evergreen planes full of soldiers. Over 125,000 soldiers, 1,000s of warplanes and unknown quantities of ammunition, bombs and missiles went through Shannon last year, and continue to do so. He talked of the danger to public safety of this cargo going through a supposedly civilian airport. He invited people to go planewatching at weekends!.
  He says SIPTU refused to support Shannon workers who planned to continue refuelling civilian planes, but not military ones. SIPTU also insists on charging the IAWM for the use of a room in Liberty Hall, even though SIPTU is an affiliated member of the IAWM.

From the floor
 A lady from some company announced how successful anti-war meetings were during SIPTU union meetings at lunchtime at work. These had spread the message to many employees. Also they had a short strike when war was declared on March 20 last year, and no one was fired.
  One speaker spoke of how Eoin Keegan, the unelected head of the Dublin city councils traffic division has made it illegal for notices of IAWM public meetings to be posted on lampposts etc. Another speaker spoke about half of his posters erected being taken down by the litter warden within 30 minutes !!  Notices of public meetings (excluding auctions) are perfectly legal as long as they are taken down withing 7 days of the event under national law. But the various councils in Dublin County have recently all passed by-laws making it necessary to ask the council for permission to erect posters, which they would refuse.
    Pleads were made for a protest outside the Dail tomorrow morning for Eoin Rice (aka the black pope)  who is currently in Block D, Limerick Prison, Mulgrave  St. Limerick courtesy of Judge Mangan of Co. Clare.  Eoin was banned from Co. Clare by Judge Mangan on an earlier occasion for anti-war protesting. When he visited Co. Clare recently he was arrested, refused to pay bail, and is now in prison. Under EU law it is illegal to barr a person from a whole county of their home country but that didn't stop Judge Mangan. Eoin is currently on hunger strike.
    Tim Hourican is similarly banned from Shannon airport and its environs. His crime ? Planewatching. The Shannon Six (i.e. Catholic Worker 5 & Mary Kelly) are also banned from Co. Clare.
     Michael O'Sullivan and Laurence Vize of the IAWM Steering Committee distributed leaflets about there discontent with how 6 members of the 16 member SC managed to vote them off the panel after a meeting of the SC. This they say highlights the hijacking of the IAWM by the SWP. The SWP contribute a lot, but must not be allowed to make the whole IAWM a publicity gimmick for their party. Fintan Lane, PRO of the IAWM has also resigned. This is in response to Richard Boyd Barretts calling of a Press Meeting hours after the Jan 21 meeting of the SC, of which the PRO was not even instructed to attend. They're are rumours of Tim Hourrican leaving as well. Fintan, who has spent time in jail for his peaceful resistance at Shannon, plans to work more with the Cork AWM.