Sir – Today (as I write in Oxford on Monday, August 4, 2014) marks the evacuation of diplomats from Libya — after our involvement in the turmoil and the deaths of thousands — and also the decision which led to the deaths of millions in 1914. Today also we see the aftermath of brutal slaughter, or intended slaughter, in Gaza and Israel.
To ask ‘when will they ever learn?’ reveals, on the one hand, the loyalty and sacrifice of men and women who are prepared to die for causes they are told are good and just. On the other hand we should recognise, on all sides, leaders who are, in my own acronym, Those Worst Equipped to Represent the People — or TWERPS.
As long as the TWERPS are allowed to continue with their war games and their repetitious massacres of women, men and children (who would sooner live in amiable accord with one another — witness Europe after 2,000 years of bloodshed) so will humanity remain bedevilled by the vain and the insane who are too often in power in all parts of the earth.
This has to be the century when, eventually, the TWERPS are peacefully rounded up and sent off to the moon (or somewhere) to play their dangerous games against each other and leave ordinary and decent women, men and children to find the warmth of each other and the joy.
It can be done. Europe did it. So may Ireland.
Ian Flintoff, Rose Hill
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