Coveney’s anti-war waffle

SOMETIMES I feel ashamed to be Irish, like when I read about Simon Coveney’s response to the horrifying chemical attack in Syria.

Our foreign minister tells us the attack is shameful and ‘there needs to be full accountability’. But military action? No, Coveney doesn’t like that at all. Instead he wants ‘independent inspection and reporting’ through the UN’.

What a vacuous waste of space this talk is. As Nick Robinson of the BBC has pointed out, there has not been a single independent UN-led inspection since the war in Syria began eight years ago – because Russia has vetoed calls for such investigations six times.

Like it or not, sometimes diplomacy just doesn’t work and military action is the only serious alternative. Coveney’s waffling and pontificating abandons the victims of Assad. Gary Keegan, Co. Meath.