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100% 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 ful
by TulliusCicero 11mo ago
100% 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.
- beezlewax 11mo agoExcept 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.
- TulliusCicero 11mo agoThat's laudable, but it doesn't change the fact that they rely on their European neighbors to defend them while feigning "neutrality" and wouldn't return the favor if another, say, EU country were seriously attacked.
- nradov 11mo agoThe Irish were idiots for sending peacekeepers there without adequate air, armor, and artillery support.
- spwa4 11mo agoLike preventing the Hezbollah attack on Israel for example. And yes, an Irish soldier died. Pte Rooney. I hope the other missions went better ... Btw: Lebanon convicted someone to a death sentence over this killing. He wasn't in court however and the conviction remains without any actual consequence for the killer, he hasn't ever been arrested. The Irish government had no reaction, other than hiding that this happened, and that nobody was actually punished is not well known in Ireland.
- tonymet 11mo agoNearly Everything consequential in history was unexpected, and for the most part we have a record of someone important saying "that will never happen"
- throw310822 11mo agoThere's also a long history of tragic events happening precisely because everyone was preparing for them (see: WWI) and of course, of horribly wrong choices getting prepared for things that never happened.
- tonymet 11mo agoWW1 wasn’t “started by preparation”. In fact it was the continuation of about 100 years of war, and the war continued for nearly 100 years afterward. Europe had been at war nearly continuously from Napoleon to 2000 .
- prmph 11mo agoInteresting! What are some battles of this war between 1946 to 2000, and what happened in 2000 to stop it?
- tonymet 11mo agoSoviet Occupation of Europe, "Cold War", which was very hot with arms race, intel, nuclear deployments, naval skirmishes, proxy wars, Yugoslavia War. It didn't end in 2000, really it expanded.
- throw310822 11mo agoThe partition of Europe between the two victors of WW2 (USA and USSR) was part of the peace, not a state of war. The cold war wasn't a war inside Europe but between two rival superpowers; the Yugoslavia war wasn't one between EU countries but a civil war result of a change in external conditions.
- throw310822 11mo agoIf Russia decided to full-on invade Ireland, a country of 4.5 million (as completely absurd as this idea is, being Ireland where it is) having its own military would not help Ireland- it should better capitulate quickly to limit damage.
- TulliusCicero 11mo agoThere's a similar population ratio between the PRC and Taiwan I believe, so I guess Taiwan should just give up on having a military entirely then? Not possible for them to stop China, so why bother? Just lie back and think of Ireland.
- Avicebron 11mo agoRussia invading Ireland would be like China invading Cuba.. there's a geo in geopolitics for a reason..
- throw310822 11mo agoIf Taiwan weren't defended by the US (for purely strategic interests, certainly not because of idealism or democracy) then yes, sure. Better than a destructive war with the same identical outcome. Btw, do you also happen to think that Ireland should arm itself against a possible invasion from the US?
- dralley 11mo agoWhat? The very distance involved and difficulty of such an invasion is precisely why resistance is extremely plausible and not being able to do so is indefensible. Even a "token" amount of resistance makes it exponentially more difficult. You would certainly have been the type of person whining about how Ukraine was doomed to fall in a matter of hours under the incredible size and capability of the Russian military. Like, these guys are just not that competent. You can make the job nearly impossible for them by just giving a single solitary fuck. To say nothing of the fact that "full invasion" isn't even really the target. They just need to be able to defend their own airspace and sea lanes against errant Russian planes and ships.