Why do we need an army?


and whilst you were defending the Baroney of Imokilly, the Dutch, German and British hippies invaded West Cork.
 
joe sod
"So what do you suggest we subcontract out our defence to the british army, that did not work out too good the last time "
when are you referring to ?
 
Personal Account while serving at the Front:- Peanuts20 was sleeping comfortably in some leafy Cork suburb while we were patrolling cross country with dead-on co-ordinates on the coast east of Castlemartyr we came across the occasional VW van painted with colourful flowers and brightly painted backgrounds. All of them had UK number plates. We didn't recognise them as Brit invaders with their sitting in the lotus position, forefingers touching thumbs and promising only love. We must have made a good impression with our Lee-Enfield rifles complete with bayonet. Most of them were not exactly ads for Pantene but could have made a few bob out of some anti-dandruff shampoo. All they had to do was shake their heads for us to be put under fire from lethal sprays of dandruff (could have been our first whiff of chemical warfare), but they didn't. I reckon they were fearful of our potential fire power after some dodgy chips in a Youghal take-away grease pan the night before.

Then there were the potato fields. Fair play to the Germans who utilised the space between the drills to grow some green leaves plants. We shared the occasional smoke with them. Their roll-your-owns were superior to ours and we felt a lot better leaving the theatre of battle for some reason unknown to us. The Russians never came though. I reckon their intelligence provided them of our might putting the fear of God into them.

We saw action on the last Sunday in a football game against the Slua Muirí contingent. We were able to swop our Hotspur for their Beano comics. We also encountered our crack force Cór Gaelach who spoke as Gaeilge. But, they had good 64 page Commando comics to swop and they were written in English. Nothing like swopping comics to promote bonding amongst "craic" troops.
 
Comrades in arms ?
In light of ongoing pay negotiations on Army pay the Irish Times is reporting that the Government is to consult with Military Associations on the possibility of affiliating with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
An armed wing of ICTU - be afraid, be very afraid !!
 
They have a political wing; the Labour Party, a propaganda wing; the Nevin REsearch Institute (and no shortage of "useful idiots" to disseminate that propaganda) and now they could be getting a military wing. The Revolution may not be that far away Comrades!!
 
Seems the army is asking itself the same question and finding so looking for a role, in bailing out ISIS.

Government rejected military plan to bring home suspected Isis supporter Lisa Smith

US officials had agreed to assist in operation to extract suspected Isis supporter from Syria
www.irishtimes.com


"There is significant dissatisfaction within J2 and the higher levels of the Defence Forces with the Government’s decision."

Who do these people think they are being dissatisfied with the governments decision.

They think that Ireland should put itself under obligation to the US military. Fortunately the govt seem to have more sense.

It does take the conversation on from "why do we need an army" to "might the army become a problem"
 
cremeegg said:
Who do these people think they are being dissatisfied with the governments decision.
Click to expand...

first of all Lisa smith does not deserve this level of attention from the authorities, i dont know why they are wasting so much time and money on her. If it was a man in her position, even if it was proved he did not commit any attrocities, he would be left to rot over there, and rightfully so. Let the yazidi women that fought isis deal with her, they have first hand experience of isis. Lisa Smith had full knowledge of what the yazidi women were subjected to before she went to Syria, it was world news in 2014.
 
cremeegg said:
It does take the conversation on from "why do we need an army" to "might the army become a problem"
Click to expand...

If you're not with me, you're against me? Is that it?

cremeegg said:
Fortunately the govt seem to have more sense.
Click to expand...

I haven't seen any evidence to confirm that!

cremeegg said:
Who do these people think they are being dissatisfied with the governments decision.
Click to expand...

Very strong language given you have absolutely no idea of the facts of the situation. You are referring to a news report of a decision made two months ago. Its a bit late for a leak of their "dissatisfaction". Theres plenty of dissatisfaction given the diabolical state of our national security apparatus and the complete ineptitude of the policy makers at designing any kind of coherent Defence policy. I dont think this decision is the cause of that.

As regards planning, the DF don't do solo runs. An exercise like this requires them to be directed to establish what would be required in order to complete a specific task. The government indicate the constraints and limitations that they are bound by and any planning is conducted within those boundaries. They receive a plan, the plan outlines the risks and they decide to go or not based on that. That's how it works.

Assistance and cooperation with allies does not put us "under obligation". Assistance and cooperation is always on a case by case or by agreement. There is NO movement on the ground without the US military, that is the reality. Any plan involving the movement of Lisa Smith will require the US military to be involved.



Joe, its already gov policy to try to repatriate her. Charlie Flanagan indicated this as early as March. The reality is she should be prosecuted for her actions but she is effectively in a failed state where this cant/wont be achieved. In this circumstance, it is a complete abdication of our responsibilities to leave her there. Throwing someone to the wolves cant be our policy. She cant be prosecuted appropriately there, and she is a risk to non-IS people over there.

Complicating the situation is of course her daughter, an innocent Irish citizen and the fact that Ireland has been exposed as being completely incapable of handling this type of situation, despite plenty of warning and opportunity.

The legal framework isn't in place to deal with the situation, we dont have the capacity to investigate her actions in Syria, our intelligence architecture isn't up to scratch, and we have no national security policy. We are caught with our pants down. However, its symptomatic, successive governments have been abdicating/ignoring our security responsibilities for decades.
 
Itchy said:
The legal framework isn't in place to deal with the situation, we dont have the capacity to investigate her actions in Syria, our intelligence architecture isn't up to scratch, and we have no national security policy.
Click to expand...

You have convinced me, we should immediately develop the ability to investigate possible times in Syria, and Yemen and China etc.

Typical military delusions of grandeur more like.
 

correct, but we are in a similar situation to most european countries, (albeit much worse), these isis returnees should be tried in a european wide nuremburg style trial, or the international war crimes court in the hague. That way intelligence can be gathered on a european wide basis and they can still the beans on each other like what happened in nuremburg. What they are saying can be checked against what others are saying, they all talk in the end. She wont face any justice if she gets back to ireland, thats a certainty
 
Reactions: PMU
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register