Ireland
Riddle me this!
It is only a matter of weeks since Lithuania declared its intention of seceding from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The government of the Soviet Union responded quite clearly that it was fully prepared to negotiate with the Lithuanians; it was simply not prepared to accept an immediate unilateral declaration of independence.
Lacking even a basic knowledge of the complexities of the problem, the hawks on Capitol Hill flooded the airwaves with cries of freedom for Lithuania--40 years of domination was enough.
Over half a millennium has passed since the British conquered Ireland. When, a few years ago, Dr. Garett Fitzgerald, then prime minister of the Republic of Ireland, put it to the British government to declare a date for ending the partition of Ireland, he received the following reply from Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher--”Never! Never! Never!” There was not a murmur from the hawks on Capitol Hill.
It makes me wonder. Is Congress the nation’s font of democracy, or its swill bin of hypocrisy?
LEO NEALON
Huntington Beach
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