I'm sorry Sir, you are on the list

In addition to the mockery directed towards some members of Colin Powell's list of 44 countries in the coalition of the willing, there's been some speculation about who's on the list of 15 countries that Colin says support the war effort but don't want to be named. Now it appears that one of those 15 is the Republic of Ireland. The Republic has had a long-standing policy of neutrality but the policy has never been more stretched than for Gulf War II, because Shannon airport (in the southwest) is being used is a refuelling stop for US military aircraft on the way to the Gulf. The Irish government claims that this does not violate neutrality because...well, they actually don't have much of a reason, other than a vague sense that Ireland should support the USA. Anyway, the Prime Minister today revealed in parliament that he believes that Ireland is one of the 15 anonymous countries, though he didn't seem too happy having to even discuss it and seems to think we shouldn't be on the list if it implies actual support for the war itself (drawing a distinction between that and the Shannon stopovers). Now we Irish can be a bit self-important sometimes. But I don't foresee the war effort crumbling with the list of quiet supporters down to 14.