Emmet Dunphy (Letters, 19/8/08) accuses me of being "anti-American", and making "ludicrous" and "laughable" claims about the links between the McCain Presidential Campaign and the South Ossetia invasion - whilst not being able to refute any of the facts contained in my letter (published 16/8/08).   For the record, I am not anti-American nor pro-Russian, but let me note that:

   1. My letter drew attention to the documented close personal and financial links between the McCain presidential campaign and the  President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili - and said nothing, good, bad or indifferent about the US as whole.

   2.  My letter said nothing about Putin's intentions or whether the Russian intervention can be construed as reasonable or opportunistic over-reaction

   3.  Given that almost all commentators, from all sides, seem to agree that a Russian response to the Georgian attack on South Ossettia was forseeable, if not inevitable, it seems reasonable to ask why Mikheil Saakashvili would engage in such an adventure.

   4. Mr. Dunphy then claims that I am a beneficiary of the invasion of South Ossetia in that it enables me to spin my "anti-American" agenda and that "concern or solidarity for the ordinary civilians caught up in the conflict are conspicuous only by their absence" in my letter and that I should "cease masquerading" as anti-war.  

I would have thought that sympathy for the innocent civilians caught up in this conflict was the obvious primary concern expressed in my letter together with a fear that their misfortune might have been occasioned, at least in part, by the dynamics of the US Presidential campaign.

That is the nub of my letter which Emmett Dunphy dismisses as "ludicrous" and "laughable if they weren't so serious".  At least he does acknowledge that it is a serious charge, yet he does not challenge any of the facts which I listed in support of my argument.  There are many more such facts contained in McCain's Senate record and Randy Scheunemann's Lobbyist record if he would care to do some research.

Blanket accusations of anti-Americanism masquerading as anti-war activism are of course the stock in trade of militarists and apologists for the neo-con project of the "New American Century" everywhere.  However I feel it is important that the causes of this conflict - and particularly any attempts to gain political/economic/personal advantage from a re-kindling of Cold War tensions - be highlighted and exposed before they are lost in the propaganda battles that characterise any war.

As a famous American, Senator Hiram Warren Johnson,  once said: "The first casualty of war is truth."  I urge Emmet Dunphy and the Irish Independent not to participate in the slaughter.

Kinds regards,

Frank Schnittger