Follow the Money, Lads

Earlier this year, the Irish Times estimated that the Irish government had received €37 mil from the US Defence Department in 2005 for permitting more than 300,000 US troops to pass through Shannon Airport. This amount doesn't include, of course, the black budget for the CIA's so-called "extraordinary rendition" flights, which use the same airfield as a pitstop. And there are likely other Irish beneficiaries feeding at the Pentagon's trough, including fuel distributors, a particularly dodgy sector of the Irish business sector. But nobody seems to be following the money in Ireland. Instead, the anti-war movement there is directing all its attention abroad to the ultimate "Evil Empire" -- the United States. All well and good, lads, but, in so doing, the Irish movement is ignoring one of activism's primary rules: Think Global, Act Local.

Above: Irish anti-war organizer Tim Hourigan, who managed to get a brief sound bite on the CBS Evening News on March 16. Hourigan was protesting in front of the Irish Aviation Authority in Dublin on Feb. 6 when this picture was taken.