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Five years after invasion of Iraq
MISCONCEIVED, INCOMPETENTLY executed, horrendously damaging and vastly expensive, the US-led invasion of Iraq five years ago continues to dog world politics and divide American and international opinion. President Bush confidently defended the war yesterday, saying that "because we acted, the world is better and the United States is safer. Removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision, and this is a fight that America can and must win." Republican candidate John McCain said the US is "on the precipice of winning a major victory against radical Islamic extremism." But Barack Obama asked pertinently: "And where are we for all of this sacrifice? We are less safe and less able to shape events abroad." p
Computers and schools
ARE IRISH schools, already struggling with large classes and a shortage of funding, being left behind in the technology revolution? A draft report prepared by a strategy group appointed by Minister for Education Mary Hanafin gives few grounds for optimism. The group was asked by Ms Hanafin to examine how best to spend €252 million allocated to schools for Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) under the National Development Plan. But the strategy group is not convinced that this allocation, spread across 4,000 schools between now and 2013, will transform Irish schools. It suggests the investment is inadequate to fund progress beyond merely functional ICT levels and says that additional finance will be required to elevate our schools to a European Union average of ICT provision. p
Opinion
The atheist delusion
OPINION: "Opposition to religion occupies the high ground, intellectually and morally," wrote Martin Amis recently. Over the past few years, leading writers and thinkers have published best-selling tracts against God. But the "secular fundamentalists" have got it all wrong, according to John Gray . pWhy Irish-Americans have lost their influence in Washington
Analysis: The ties that bind Ireland and the US are not being reinforced by a new wave of immigrants, writes Mark Hennessey . pMutual indifference marks North-South relations
Political ties may be better than ever but the two parts of this island are still as estranged as ever, writes Fionnuala O Connor . pWe cannot 'deliver' development from outside
OPINION: The days of "us" doing it for "them" in Africa are long behind us, writes Eamonn Meehan . pOut of our depth in tackling overfishing disaster
Consumers are unaware of the havoc overfishing is producing, writes John Gibbons . pLost sheep offer stimulating company to a willing doubter
THERE WAS a small epiphany in church last week when we sang the recessional O Sacred Head, Now Wounded , a German chorale in which we basses must jump around more limberly than we may be used to. A tough part compared to When the Roll Is Called up Yonder and I stood in the rear and struggled with it, and then as the choir recessed down the main aisle and came up and stood in the side aisles, three basses wound up standing near me, like border collies alongside the lost sheep, and I got myself in their draft and we sang our way to the barn. (Moral: get with the group - just make sure it's the right one), writes Garrison Keilor . p
An Irishman's Diary
AT THE risk of appearing heartless, I live in hope that the trauma Paul McCartney has been through lately may inspire him to turn back the years and produce a classic divorce album writes Frank McNally . p
