Ireland's Inability to Defend Itself
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Ireland's Inability to Defend Itself
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Re: Ireland's Inability to Defend Itself
#2My first thought was "defend itself from what ?", but in this new ages of drones, I guess it could be an issue.
IIRC, doesn't Ireland pay the UK for some type of defense ?
Re: Ireland's Inability to Defend Itself
#3My first thought was "defend itself from what ?", but in this new ages of drones, I guess it could be an issue. IIRC, doesn't Ireland pay the UK for some type of defense ?
Drones, and hostile ships fucking around with transatlantic cables and pipelines.
>IIRC, doesn't Ireland pay the UK for some type of defense ?
No, we do it for free.
Re: Ireland's Inability to Defend Itself
#4My first thought was "defend itself from what ?", but in this new ages of drones, I guess it could be an issue. IIRC, doesn't Ireland pay the UK for some type of defense ?
> defend itself from what ?"
The article addresses this unfortunate attitude: the whole premise of your question is, "well they'd have to go through these other countries first, so not our problem".
It's a bit like if Kansas refused to pay anything towards the defense budget because any hostile powers would have to go through all those other states first.
But, as the article also notes, air and sea power are things. If a hostile power decides to fuck with one of the many undersea Internet cables that make their way to and through Ireland, what's Ireland going to do about it?
Re: Ireland's Inability to Defend Itself
#5Ireland having 0 military capabilities, and being completely dependent on NATO, while being extremely opinionated, on how and what NATO does, always irked me deeply.
Re: Ireland's Inability to Defend Itself
#6100% agreed with this article. The whole idea of Ireland's supposed neutrality is a farce. Does anyone really think that if a country like Russia decided to full-on invade Ireland, other European nations would just shrug it off? Of course not, and the Irish are well aware of that and rely on it (already they explicitly rely on the UK to help defend their country as a matter of policy).
So really it's a simple hypocrisy, a one-way street. You help us, but we don't help you. We're too principled to help others, you see.
Re: Ireland's Inability to Defend Itself
#7Ireland having 0 military capabilities, and being completely dependent on NATO, while being extremely opinionated, on how and what NATO does, always irked me deeply.
Ireland nobly took a stand against fighting the Nazis in WW2, and they've been similarly brave ever since.
Re: Ireland's Inability to Defend Itself
#8100% agreed with this article. The whole idea of Ireland's supposed neutrality is a farce. Does anyone really think that if a country like Russia decided to full-on invade Ireland, other European nations would just shrug it off? Of course not, and the Irish are well aware of that and rely on it (already they explicitly rely on the UK to help defend their country as a matter of policy). So really it's a simple hypocri…
Except the Irish army has conducted large numbers of peacekeeping missions as part of the United Nations. Irish soldiers have died in said operations. The Siege at Jadotville is one example - there is a pretty great film about this.
Re: Ireland's Inability to Defend Itself
#9You know, there’s something to be said for Ireland’s attitude. The other islands (ha!) and the continent have treated them as second-class chattel for centuries, while competing amongst themselves for global hegemony. Better to stay out of that game and sort their own business, many of them think.
Re: Ireland's Inability to Defend Itself
#10Ireland having 0 military capabilities, and being completely dependent on NATO, while being extremely opinionated, on how and what NATO does, always irked me deeply.
Ireland nobly took a stand against fighting the Nazis in WW2, and they've been similarly brave ever since.
Notably thousands of Irish soldiers did fight the Germans in WW2 but via joining the British Army... an act that was frowned upon at the times. Many were killed.