Why do we need an army?

1. If the UK attacks Rockall, we'll need bigger prisons for the amount of prisoners-of-war we'll take.
2. I bet our navy is on red alert to take on the Royal Navy.
3. I'm just imagining our Air Corps arming our aircraft.

My spies in the UK (my sister and brother-in-law and their kids) inform me that Teresa May is shaking in her shoes about the might of the Irish Defence Forces. I can hear the representatives of the lowest members of our army (their wives and girlfriends) calling for a farewell-to-arms unless higher pay is given immediately. I can hear the army television "wags" screaming for the Gardaí to be sent to the front as their expenses and overtime rates are much higher than an army private, corporal, sergeant etc.

In the North, those appearing to be more British than the British themselves will rush to the coast and border armed to the teeth with an issue that can make them look good and give them a licence to do what they want to do. In Belfast the black taxis and other taxis probably will square up to each other at the foot of the Falls Road.

I don't know if I can sleep with the oncoming struggle over the fishing rights of a lonely, unoccupied windswept island sorry rock over two hundred miles from the Donegal coast. This is a godsend for Leo Varadkar and will keep the recent election results from the news.
 
It would be rash to take on the might of the UK. But if we bide our time, with a bit of luck, Scotland will become independent. We should be secretly building up our army and especially navy capability so that at the opportune time we can plant a tricolor on Rockall. We should also be mobilizing our substantial Celtic supporting fifth column in Scotland so that it is fully prepared for the inevitable conflict. There seems to me something fishy about Scotland choosing this particular time to rattle that sabre.
 
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In a previous life, I was in the FCA. I served at the front in Youghal for two summers. Now, I'm getting worried, because of my extensive military experience I might get a call-up to fight the Brits. Then I might not be able to post here for a while.
 
Given his recent successes in North Korea is there any chance we can get Shane Ross to take up residence on Rockall and put this issue to bed, to the satisfaction of the people of Sandyford and it's hinterlands, for once and for all.
 
we need to do like the chinese did with our recycling and land fill and build a island there ,plant a flag on it and presto we have a new territorial water limit
 
Every democratic state has a moral obligation to protect its citizens against external aggression and internal subversion. This is distinct from policing and envisages an armed response against aggressors. That's why you have defence forces.

As a member of the European Union, if we believe in it and have benefited from it, we also have an obligation to defend it. But we don't. We just take the cash and the benefits the EU offers. As far as am aware, Ireland is unique in not participating in any of the European defence bodies, provided for by the Treaty of the European Union. So we appear to be getting a 'free ride' on external defence, e.g. sheltering behind both NATO and the EU but not contributing.

One of Europe's greatest failures was its inability to act to prevent massacres taking place on European soil, e.g. in Bosnia and Kosovo after the breakup of Yugoslavia. Thank God for the military intervention of NATO and the diplomacy of politicians like Bill Clinton and Tony Bair that prevented atrocities continuing, while Europe dithered. Hopefully increased EU military co-operation through the common security and defence policy will prevent such things happening again. Of course, Ireland doesn't participate in this.

Ireland spends the second lowest proportion of its GDP (0.55%) on defence, way below the EU average of 1.55%, and it would be prudent to shift expenditure away from the Celtic tiger vanity projects and the pet projects so beloved by our politicians to increasing our defence capability and increasing it in coordination with Europe.
 
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Why do we need an army is an interesting question.

PMU said:
Every democratic state has a moral obligation to protect its citizens against external aggression and internal subversion. This is distinct from policing and envisages an armed response against aggressors. That's why you have defence forces.
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Is a reasonable answer.

Unfortunately it is not the answer to a perhaps more pertinent question, what are we using the army for ?

The answer to which seems to be to wage war in Africa. https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/ireland-has-quietly-joined-a-dangerous-war-1.3925891
 
We don't need an army and don't have an effective one anyway; in the event of an attack the RAF would initially provide protection followed by NATO and the Americans.

Financial commentator Jill Kirby has been a proponent of abolishing the army for years; an annual cost of €500m to maintain a standing 'army' has been mentioned, which is an abomination for what is at best a ceremonial unit.

The ARW are supposed to be a crack special operations unit; I recently heard a former member on the radio and he sounded like a spokesperson for the Dads Army Appreciation Society.
 
Carnmore said:
The ARW are supposed to be a crack special operations unit; I recently heard a former member on the radio and he sounded like a spokesperson for the Dads Army Appreciation Society.
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That's a bit harsh.
 
ok but the top guys were deployed in Afghanistan /iraq at the time so couldn't be in 2 places at once
 
Carnmore said:
We don't need an army and don't have an effective one anyway; in the event of an attack the RAF would initially provide protection followed by NATO and the Americans.
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So what do you suggest we subcontract out our defence to the british army, that did not work out too good the last time. As for NATO first we would have to join it and guess what we would need an army and commit it to protecting all other countries in NATO including believe it or not Turkey. Oh and I forgot Trump is putting huge pressure on all NATO countries to commit 2% of GDP spending to defence so we would have to spend more on defence by having a NATO protective umbrella. I think irish people are a bit delusional about defence and the real world. Just because nothing really bad has happened in our region since WW2 does not mean that will always be so, remember Trump toyed with the idea of removing US protection from NATO
 
We spend €0.639 billion a year on our armed services and have a standing army of 7,300 and 1,800 reservists.
Sweden, a country with a little over twice our population, spends €5.6 billion a year on their armed services and has a standing army of 22,500 with 34,500 reservists.
Sweden can defend itself. Ireland can't. Our army cannot defend the State. We should either have a proper one or none at all.
 

Then we'd have to get our hands dirty with producing weapons systems for that army. The Irish Times & RTE et al wouldn't tolerate that.
Our current fake neutrality means they get to whinge about US soldiers and RAF planes, while keeping their own slate 'unsullied'.
 
We could just buy the weapons. We don't have to make them.
I agree about our fake neutrality.
 
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