L’Irlanda sarà incentivata a “aumentare massicciamente” la spesa militare nell’ambito del nuovo piano UE “riarmo”

Great to see Ursula grasping the nettle here on this one, the writing has been on the wall for some time now with the noises from the White House and it was confirmed in that public display of humiliation towards Zelensky last week.

I think the time has come to accept that our neutrality is but a buzzword that has no reality to it. Our allegiances are to the EU and we will, along with the rest of Europe, turn our backs on the U.S.

Unfortunately that will mean providing our own protection from Russia and beyond. Hopefully it won’t mean having to sent our troops to hold Putin back inside Ukraine but it feels a possibility at this point. Good to hear we’ll be incentivized to do so should that happen.

Good, even if we have no intention of committing to a European defence pact or whatever we really, really need to address the decades of under investment in our defence and security.

Hell yeah. Get some nukes too while we’re at it.

It’s not like various EU countries weren’t already spending more on defence; America is no longer a guarantor of our safety from a leader in Moscow who laments the dissolution of the USSR. It’s a rotten outcome but the EU is going to have to redress the balance of its strongest ally pulling a heel turn. NATO is a busted flush at this point.

I’m no hawk and the last thing the world needs is more weapons, but the fact is the EU needs cohesion more than ever; I’d not be surprised if the whole “EU Army” narrative turns up again sometime soon, spearheaded by the countries most at risk of Putin’s next grab [*]. The Union needs to be in a position to defend itself on its own terms; christ if I wanna be super cynical it’ll be good for the continental economy too.

Irish neutrality should never, ever amount to an inability to defend ourselves however; not from invasion, being the most dramatic example but basic incursions into our waters or territory. Switzerland’s neutrality is as famous but possess more than enough armaments to defend its territory; neutrality shouldn’t mean powerlessness.

[*] Though I would wonder how realistic that is given just how much of a charnel house Ukraine proved to be; hundreds of thousands of casualties, while nearly as many left a country already suffering from a population crisis. Russia has had to dust off post WW2 equipment and this doesn’t suggest they’d be capable of mounting _another_ invasion anytime soon.

EU needs to rearm itself create an army of the willing and disband NATO.

We should however de-escalate this conflict and let the Americans, Ukrainians and Russians negotiate peace. We should only be protecting ourselves and when the dust settles Ukraine can join EU. We should be trading with all Eurasian countries not sending in “peace keepers”

Lads hear me out… ***Military Bike Sheds***

I want a citizen army Swiss style armed with drones. 1 drone per every 5 citizens.

Then if it kicks off we get issued the ordinace to arm them.

I just want to say I’m really glad to see the majority of people commenting on this speaking sense. Nobody wants to in an ideal world but I think it’s necessary at this point. But my god, every response to this on twitter (“X”) is an absolute cesspool. So many of the accounts seem suspicious too it’s obvious musk has designed the algorithm that way

Mandatory military service for scrotes! Under 20? Have more than 5 convictions? Off to bootcamp with you! No were not going to train you to be killing machines but a 5 year stint swabbing decks, learning trades and being instilled with discipline while earning a modest wage surely wouldn’t hurt.