Is it time to join Nato

Well was it not you who wanted to send troops North as 'peacekeepers'?

It seems you have no faith in the Irish Government or the people who elect them.

Sending troops abroad is of huge consequence and would not be taken lightly. It seems you have more faith in the Brits or the Russians who have a veto than the Irish people and government themselves.

I didn't create the triple lock mark. The government at the time accepted that as part of the decision making process. Taunt them about it.

Ideally peacekeeping needs a very broad alliance behind it and the umbrella of the UN (flaws and all) is the best we have got.

I did think that we should have went in anyway to the north which was at the time, constitutionally disputed territory in our eyes. Even if it was wrong it was still the right thing to do morally and we can still do that (break the triple lock if we wish)

Interesting to see that you now think the UN part of the lock is a bad thing and the government should be free to send troops were they wish.

Here is what you said about the lock:

I.E. Hypothetically, a government could send troops were they wished.

Giggling to myself here at how you just demolished your previous arguments to try and ...well you know what you were doing yourself.

I never pronounced 'faith' in anything mark. I pointed out the lock exists and that we have more say than the UN has (as you claimed) as two arms of the state have to approve any mission.

I also believe peacekeeping needs an umbrella group behind it and the UN is the best we have got.

Other than that you are now once again projecting and trying it on.

If you have anything relevant to the topic, say it. Otherwise...good luck.

You cannot undo you faux pas mark. You change with the wind to score a point and undermined your own torturous logic. Still giggling here.

I dont follow.

I think yet again you wont ask another simple question. Plainly obvious as to why, but anyway.

One can look at it like this

1) Keep the political status quo

2) Keep the political status quo but fund the DF better (options B or C in that report)

3) Actually keep neutral, like Sweden but this will mean massive increases in defence spending

4) Get rid of the triple-lock. Personally, I think it's crazy that we allow permanent members of the UN Security Council to dictate foreign policy terms to us. It essentially means the Russians, Chinese or the British get to veto a decision, we the Irish people make.

5) Join NATO*

At least NATO comes with a security blanket protection and other benefits. At the moment the triple lock comes with zero benefits.

The cranks and usual crew won't like any of those options though.

*There is also the possibility of some future EU army or DF or something like that.

Foreign policy is not dictated to us, our Foreign Minister can even go to Russia to suck up for a vote.

I'll say this again but it will probably fall on deaf ears again, peacekeeping needs an umbrella group and the UN is the best we have. I didn't establish the veto.

What else do you advise ignoring the UN on BTW?

Ok, so that is a No, you don't advocate to remove it and you are quite happy with the veto the Chinese, Americans, French, Russians and the old enemy, 'da Brits' have on our foreign policy.

Are you happy for any government here to administer this scheme mark? Say there is another build up of tension in the north? Would you be for us sending in an aid/peacekeeping mission?

Jaysus, this is classic, please don't close the thread! ROFL.

Lol 🤣🤣🤣

Russia does not see Ireland as unaligned.The country toadies to whoever offers benefits i.e. tech jobs or air cover for example.I doubt very much if Uncle Sam or GB would do anything if the Russian bear wanted a piece of the Irish teddy.

The fact is the country that is most likely to invade us is in Nato. Russia has zero interest in us unless we were willing to a deal with them so they could put nukes here (like Cuba in the 60's) which we never will.

Being an island is huge advantage from a defensive perspective too. Even in WWI and WW2 nobody was interested in us, neither was Napoleon even tho we were part of the UK then. Are geographical position and small size puts us in a nice position regarding wars. Why waste 2% 7bn per year of are gdp on defence when we will never need it and have a housing crises to fix.

NATO more likely to attack us than Russia?? You are either dillusional or a Russian agent.

We are the weak back door into the EU. If Russia wanted to make a point to tell the west to **** off they could drop a nuke on Dublin knowing it doesn't trigger NATO self defence clauses. Do you really think your beloved Putin is sane enough not to do that?

I mean the country most likely to war with us is the UK who are in Nato which is an indication of how unlikely we are to be invaded.

Countries don't attack others for no reason. Even in this war their is a motive for russia to attack the Ukraine. Every war has a motive. Even Hitler had one when starting to invade poland as the german nation was living in poland. Countries don't invade and start a war with others for no reason.

Russia to flex it muscles and drop a nuke on us ? Do you realise how stupid that is. Every country including their allies china would go to war with them should they do that.

I could be wrong but isn't Ukraine's isolation problem twofold in that they are neither EU or NATO members?

Perhaps we can benefit from a credible status as semi-independent arbitrators by being EU members but not NATO members?