EDITOR – As the government has difficulty in deciding what to do with the reported windfall from corporation tax, a sensible idea is to have the abundant financial resources allocated to the elimination of nationwide homelessness or easily achievable infrastructural projects, such as the eradication of the two score of deadly dead-end footpaths and the many hazardous bus stops in Tower village, Blarney.

Let’s hope the financial windfall is not spent foolishly on military planes, ships, and tanks used ultimately to contribute to the killing of fellow humans in forever wars, or, consequently, the slaughter of Irish nationals within those warmongering chariots of death and destruction.

JoeTerry,

Blarney

Defence conversation forgets the victims

EDITOR - Some EU leaders are saying the EU needs to beef up militarily in case Russia may start a war against the EU, when I think everything must be done to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. They are coming close to an agreement. A plan has been proposed and it looks as good as possible with some changes as talks continue between Ukraine and the US.

When politicians living safely away from this war debate the strategies, not as much is said about the huge loss of lives of soldiers, civilians and families.

US President Dwight D Eisenhower, before he left office, warned of the dangers of the military-industrial complex in the US getting too powerful. There are parts of the US booming from manufacturing arms, missiles, and munitions. It is a fact of life they seem to need wars to be financially viable.

The US has 43% of the global market for exports of missiles, arms, and tanks. Other exporters are France, China, Germany, and the UK. Their customers are in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

If the EU develops a bigger military industrial complex, then in order to keep upgrading and selling missiles, wars elsewhere may be needed to financially sustain them and pay the thousands of employees.

Politicians and political parties in the EU, to win votes, will support this bigger military industry. It is one factor in why wars go on for so long and these were the dangers that Eisenhower warned about.

Countries need a strong defence, with missiles to act as a deterrent. When it becomes a strong part of the manufacturing economy, foreign policy may be dictated by it. President Eisenhower has been proven right many times.

The US sent enormous amount of rockets and missiles for Israel to pound Gaza while at same time the US wanted the war to end. This was the military industrial complex in action and was one of the reasons why the US-Vietnam War in the 1960’s into the early 1970’s went on for so long.

Mary Sullivan,

Cork.

Stop bending the knee to US involvement

EDITOR - The United Nations Security Council recently voted to give the US and Israel more control to illegally occupy Gaza, further stripping away Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

This plan, which former senior UN human rights official Craig Mokhiber called a ‘colonial outrage’, grants Israel even more impunity to continue mass atrocities. Israel’s government continues violating its ‘ceasefire’ in Gaza and surrounding countries.

The Israeli military keeps bombing Palestinian families in Gaza on a daily basis. Meanwhile in the West Bank, Israeli forces are violently invading northern refugee camps and demolishing Palestinian homes in a large-scale assault, while settlers rampage and attack Palestinian communities. Rather than hold Israel accountable for countless crimes, Trump has concocted his own colonial plans to chair a foreign board to govern Gaza.

Yet the Palestinian people endure, fighting to survive and refusing to be uprooted from their beloved homeland. The majority of Irish people identify with the Palestinian`s dire plight and protest our government’s refusal to hold the apartheid state accountable after two years of impunity for continuing genocide in Gaza in which it has slaughtered more than 70,000 Palestinians.

We must support these embattled people by enacting the Occupied Territories Bill, including the Services clause and stop bending the knee to the billionaires and extremist evangelicals who control the US.

Daniel Teegan,

Listarkin,

Union Hall.

Clonakilty cinema a blessing for the town

EDITOR -   I wonder do the people of the Clonakilty area realise how very lucky we are to have a cinema in Clonakilty?

There is no cinema in Bandon, nor is there one in Skibbereen or Dunmanway. Long may we remain so lucky.

Áine Ní Chonaill,

Clonakilty.