I voted for Michael D twice but the anti defence rhetoric from himself and Connolly is very naive.
pisowiec on
Very few people “want” to be militaristic. But foolish pacifism by Europe is why the US and Russia are on the rise while we’re on the decline.
mannix67 on
Give it a rest Michael, Myself and the rest of Europe is getting fed up of Ireland trying to be the goody two shoes all the time..
GerKoll on
“Good fences make good neighbours” (Robert Frost)
harry_dubois on
Like the man a lot, voted for him twice, excellent President in my opinion – but being able to take responsibility for our own national security and defence isn’t “militarism”, it’s a bare minimum requirement for being a sovereign State, let alone one that claims to be neutral. Look at any actually neutral country like Austria or Switzerland for reference – those lads do NOT BS around when it comes to security and defence by anyone’s standard, let alone ours.
Soft-Affect-8327 on
Fact is we either do it in the open or it will be done in secret.
I’d rather those with guns be in the open and subject to the law thanks.
That said, I wish we could get vehicles that were of use in both war and peacetime. When are we going to need a dogfighting aircraft?
Pale_Piano948 on
For everyone saying michael d higgins doesn’t want ireland to defend ourselves or is ignorant of the massive geopolitical shifts happening in the world.
What he’s talking about is the increasing rhetoric around our neutrality and the pressure to align ourselves with militant forces, getting involved in foreign wars, wars in which YOU will be conscripted for and for which we make our country a military target if we get involved. That means bombs, that means air raids, that means cities pumeled.
And our politicians are so fucking wrapped up under america’s thumb i dont believe they’d act in our best interests. We already allow the usa to use shannon as a transport hub for weapons and military. Because of decades of doing nothing to diversify our economy, we are now critically dependent on the usa which is being run by a psychopath who last night threatened to “end a civilisation”.
The wars we’d get involved in would be proxy wars and then we also have to ask ourselves, do we accept the consequences for when irish troops inevitably commit war crimes. Because war is messy, pressure is on, and mistakes happen, costly mistakes.
The idea of “oh we need to defend ourselves” DOES NOT contradict irish neutrality. The irish government is spineless and i do not trust them to work in our best interest.
VoluntaryJetsFan on
Genuinely dont understand why people think Britain should be the sole defenders. The country needs a serious overhaul in terms of defense. Genuinely the biggest pushovers in Europe.
itstheboombox on
We don’t need to be militaristic, but we gotta be pragmatic.
We need to take steps to ensure we are ready for the worst, but also ensure it is not seen as us taking resources away from people to build an army, especially at a time where people are already pissed off about stuff like energy and government inaction
leeroyer on
There comments were in an address to the INTO. Previously he used the young scientist competition to have a go at NATO. He picks the strangest places to go on these tangents.
SERGIONOLAN on
Ireland needs to put more money into defence spending and have more naval ships, pay the soldiers and sailors a proper wage.
Affectionate-Idea451 on
Surely it follows that the thing to do is simply “reject” the possibility of bullying or worse by those with the capacity to be lethal.
wrghf on
It’s such a thoroughly naive view of the world.
No-one, at least not with a straight face, is calling for Ireland to invest in things like MBTs, aircraft carriers, missiles, or things like that.
Currently Ireland doesn’t even have the barest of absolute minimums when it comes to safeguarding our security. The navy is undermanned and ill-equipped, routinely failing to be able to put ships to sea for a variety of reasons. We have no long range heavy-lift capacity, we don’t have adequate radar capability, we have nil air interdiction abilities and outsource this entirely to other countries, we have nil under-sea detection capability without relying on other countries, and so on.
These things are beginning to change very, very slowly, but Ireland needs to invest massively more in its defence, so that at a minimum we are able to do these kind of things in-house without constantly freeloading off other countries. Ireland is never going to get involved in another countries wars unless we are directly threatened; that’s a given, but also can’t always be reliant on other countries for even the most basic things because who knows what the geopolitical landscape of next year looks like, or 5, 10 or 15 years down the line.
B0bLoblawLawBl0g on
“Peace for our time.” – Neville Chamberlain
Yooklid on
I am one of the few people on this sub who never liked him, so this means nothing to me beyond validating that i was right to not like him.
dario_sanchez on
Ah this thread again, only with Michael D flavouring.
Don’t know how you can look at the way the world is at the moment and decide the best course of action is to make ourselves more defenseless.
Ok_Magazine_3383 on
Higgins was an excellent President.
And that’s largely because that role doesn’t require the degree of realism, practical policy and geopolitical awareness that actually leading government does.
And questions about our military capabilities in the context of increased security threat in Europe fall into the list of issues I expect the government to address, not the President.
So with all due respect to Higgins, and as long as he isn’t embarassing us internationally or getting into direct conflict with the government, I don’t particularly care about his opinion on this topic. Ditto the current President. It’s also the sort of thing I would _expect_ them to say.
pablo8itall on
Who is saying those things he’s replying to?
Who is asking for us to be more lethal?
Irish people just want us to be able to do the bare minimum to maintain our defense. The DF is in a shocking state.
intelligentprince on
If the EU sets up a common defense policy….we opt out? Would they allow us?
19 commenti
I voted for Michael D twice but the anti defence rhetoric from himself and Connolly is very naive.
Very few people “want” to be militaristic. But foolish pacifism by Europe is why the US and Russia are on the rise while we’re on the decline.
Give it a rest Michael, Myself and the rest of Europe is getting fed up of Ireland trying to be the goody two shoes all the time..
“Good fences make good neighbours” (Robert Frost)
Like the man a lot, voted for him twice, excellent President in my opinion – but being able to take responsibility for our own national security and defence isn’t “militarism”, it’s a bare minimum requirement for being a sovereign State, let alone one that claims to be neutral. Look at any actually neutral country like Austria or Switzerland for reference – those lads do NOT BS around when it comes to security and defence by anyone’s standard, let alone ours.
Fact is we either do it in the open or it will be done in secret.
I’d rather those with guns be in the open and subject to the law thanks.
That said, I wish we could get vehicles that were of use in both war and peacetime. When are we going to need a dogfighting aircraft?
For everyone saying michael d higgins doesn’t want ireland to defend ourselves or is ignorant of the massive geopolitical shifts happening in the world.
What he’s talking about is the increasing rhetoric around our neutrality and the pressure to align ourselves with militant forces, getting involved in foreign wars, wars in which YOU will be conscripted for and for which we make our country a military target if we get involved. That means bombs, that means air raids, that means cities pumeled.
And our politicians are so fucking wrapped up under america’s thumb i dont believe they’d act in our best interests. We already allow the usa to use shannon as a transport hub for weapons and military. Because of decades of doing nothing to diversify our economy, we are now critically dependent on the usa which is being run by a psychopath who last night threatened to “end a civilisation”.
The wars we’d get involved in would be proxy wars and then we also have to ask ourselves, do we accept the consequences for when irish troops inevitably commit war crimes. Because war is messy, pressure is on, and mistakes happen, costly mistakes.
The idea of “oh we need to defend ourselves” DOES NOT contradict irish neutrality. The irish government is spineless and i do not trust them to work in our best interest.
Genuinely dont understand why people think Britain should be the sole defenders. The country needs a serious overhaul in terms of defense. Genuinely the biggest pushovers in Europe.
We don’t need to be militaristic, but we gotta be pragmatic.
We need to take steps to ensure we are ready for the worst, but also ensure it is not seen as us taking resources away from people to build an army, especially at a time where people are already pissed off about stuff like energy and government inaction
There comments were in an address to the INTO. Previously he used the young scientist competition to have a go at NATO. He picks the strangest places to go on these tangents.
Ireland needs to put more money into defence spending and have more naval ships, pay the soldiers and sailors a proper wage.
Surely it follows that the thing to do is simply “reject” the possibility of bullying or worse by those with the capacity to be lethal.
It’s such a thoroughly naive view of the world.
No-one, at least not with a straight face, is calling for Ireland to invest in things like MBTs, aircraft carriers, missiles, or things like that.
Currently Ireland doesn’t even have the barest of absolute minimums when it comes to safeguarding our security. The navy is undermanned and ill-equipped, routinely failing to be able to put ships to sea for a variety of reasons. We have no long range heavy-lift capacity, we don’t have adequate radar capability, we have nil air interdiction abilities and outsource this entirely to other countries, we have nil under-sea detection capability without relying on other countries, and so on.
These things are beginning to change very, very slowly, but Ireland needs to invest massively more in its defence, so that at a minimum we are able to do these kind of things in-house without constantly freeloading off other countries. Ireland is never going to get involved in another countries wars unless we are directly threatened; that’s a given, but also can’t always be reliant on other countries for even the most basic things because who knows what the geopolitical landscape of next year looks like, or 5, 10 or 15 years down the line.
“Peace for our time.” – Neville Chamberlain
I am one of the few people on this sub who never liked him, so this means nothing to me beyond validating that i was right to not like him.
Ah this thread again, only with Michael D flavouring.
Don’t know how you can look at the way the world is at the moment and decide the best course of action is to make ourselves more defenseless.
Higgins was an excellent President.
And that’s largely because that role doesn’t require the degree of realism, practical policy and geopolitical awareness that actually leading government does.
And questions about our military capabilities in the context of increased security threat in Europe fall into the list of issues I expect the government to address, not the President.
So with all due respect to Higgins, and as long as he isn’t embarassing us internationally or getting into direct conflict with the government, I don’t particularly care about his opinion on this topic. Ditto the current President. It’s also the sort of thing I would _expect_ them to say.
Who is saying those things he’s replying to?
Who is asking for us to be more lethal?
Irish people just want us to be able to do the bare minimum to maintain our defense. The DF is in a shocking state.
If the EU sets up a common defense policy….we opt out? Would they allow us?