Ireland's Neutrality was hard won. It wasn't given to us and history shows we won it.
True enough. We had to, er, go to war against what was then the world's largest empire to win the right to be neutral. (John Lennon's apt comments on virginity come to mind!) Or, equally, the right not to be neutral. They're complementary rights.
The sooner other nations copy what we have done regarding wars the sooner we'll have some kind of world peace.
Kumbaya, my Lord, Kumbaya! Great thought. Now go sell it to Vlad, Xi, Kim and the approximately 80% of the world's nations that aren't democracies where the military is under civil control.
The war in Ukraine like the Middle East conflict, like any African country civil war and Asian difficulties are all about land. No land, even in Belfast, Dublin and Kiev is worth the shedding of a single drop of blood, let alone dying for.
That's a pretty extreme pacifist position. So when the guys with tanks show up and want some of your land, you should just..... give it to them?? Because that's the inescapable logic of your position. And then, what do you do when they swallow the first bit and demand more. (Anschluss, Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, Poland.......)
So Putin is extending his territory and being not much different to Hitler, Napoleon, the Brits, the Yanks etc thinks he is doing the right thing. Putin is a terrorist and terrorists in the long run don't win.
Actually they do sometimes. And the long run can be very long indeed.
Putin may not be beaten by military means, but a determined people will make him look stupid and eventually the people of Ukraine will achieve this.
One can only hope. Because we've got no better ideas......
But, here on a good forum (called Ask About Money, no less!) we have some people thinking Ireland should cease its entitled status of being Neutral. They want to send our army, bit of a navy and air corps to fight Russian Might. Our army has been underpaid for years, treated disgracefully and is a "laugh" in many an Irish town, Our army had to depend on their wives and girlfriends to fight their pay and conditions claims which has taken years and is still ongoing. Some of the female members of our army have waited years to have alleged rape claims from within our forces even to be heard.
And still you want them to fight the might of Russia . . . ask their wives and girlfriends first.
Very salient points. We have treated our armed forces disgracefully, and harmed them as individuals and us as a society in so doing. There's a very instructive article in the Irish Times today about how Finland and Ireland deal with our respective neutralities. Theirs is real. Ours is makey-uppy. They have a navy of 200 ships. With territorial waters
thirty times their size, we have nine. Not all of which can put to sea for want of crew. They're about to buy a couple of squadrons of F-35s, the most advanced warplanes ever. Our only jets are trainers with tiny machine guns mounted. It's pathetic.
Ireland and Finland: Similar countries with vastly different security approaches (via @IrishTimes)
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ire...astly-different-security-approaches-1.4812357