If being an unaligned country with a large army is no deterrent to Putin's ambitions is it time for ROI to join Nato?
Worry about what you can control. So russia has nukes, possibly even some that work. If they choose to use them, that's on them. If they threaten to use them and the rest of the world caves in to such antics, that's on the rest of the world. When does the rest of the world take a principled stand? Or does civilisation keep giving ground based on a threat until there's no free nations left?
I still believe in Radek Sikorski's diplomacy, to paraphrase "kick him in the balls".
The "Irish Neutrality Campaign" (assorted dissident Republican characters more like) throwing a strop over those devilish Belgians docking in the port of Cork.
It is known dissident Republicans have taken junkets to Russia on several occasions. If they have taken a penny into any bank account from Russian government sources, the Gardai should be all over them like a rash. We don't want or need fifth columnists in this country, and particularly not ones that have a history of political violence.
the world is taking a principalled stand via economic and other sanctions.
boots on the ground in russia are not going to happen, nor are nato boots in ukrain.
I would be in favour of NATO, if they are willing, striking russia conventionally, should russia used WMD's in Ukraine. This doesn't require boots going to either Ukraine or russia. Economic and other sanctions are necessary and welcome, but they are not enough alone.
You can't say what's not going to happen anymore than you can say what is happening
Those idiots don't understand the Hague Conventions.
Denmark are in Nato and have a Navy, what good did that do to protect their underwater infrastructure?
It wasn't their infrastructure
if nato fires any weapons on russia then it's world war 3 and a nuclear war at that, so that is not going to happen.
economic sanctions and supporting ukrain behind the sceenes with weaponry and equipment is all that will happen because it's all that can be done.
russia is not some sort of untouchable just because it has nuclear weapons. Lot's of nations have nuclear weapons. If they choose to use them then all calculations will change. Again, I would be 100% supportive of Western attacks on russia should russia use WMD's against Ukraine, OR if they cause a nuclear accident at one of Ukraine's NPPs.
Likewise us having a navy and being in NATO is pointless to protect the infrastructure off Ireland
Is your point that all defensive measures are pointless? Because that appears to be where you're going with this.
Let's just let Russia or other rouge states go crazy and f*ck with us at will, because everything is pointless.
At the moment we can't protect the infrastructure off Ireland, and we are not in a military alliance that could protect the infrastructure off Ireland. That leaves us with three choices
(1) Do nothing, and leave ourselves at the mercy of the Russians, who could cripple our economy at any time
(2) Invest hugely in defence, submarines, warships etc. to protect our infrastructure
(3) Join a military alliance that can protect our infrastructure.
I will settle for (3), and join NATO.
But yet here you are enjoying Irish internet access
(3) is not a free ride but more to the point, you are massively overstating just how much protection this will grant.
No one is going to physically interfere with anything Russians are doing in international waters and no one is going to go to war with Russia over these pipelines.
Nor does Russia give much of a crap about Ireland.
The US doesn't care about gas pipelines in the Baltic, but it does have an interest in internet cables off the southwest of Ireland.
Not necessarily they don't give a crap about us but they do give a large crap about all those undersea Cables for which we as extremely dependent on
And? Its not about to sink a Russian sub over it, whether Ireland is in NATO or not.
Again, I think people are massively overstating the amount of protection to any undersea cables going to Ireland that this would afford. If Russia wants to destory them for some reason they'll just do it outside our waters. Of course I think we are about 100th on their list of priorities anyway.
Nobody is going to f**k with us at will, this talk is all agenda driven to create a narrative that we need to join NATO. We don't!
We do...
You put that to the people and see what the response will be!
Looking at Ukraine I'm sure it won't go your way
Ok, we'll have Claire Daly and Mick Wallace telling the people not to join NATO, so it definitely will end up in us joining.
We've one foot in the door as we are officially part of the Nato membership for peace and Nato previously invited us to join ....
I will add in that while Russia may not be directly or likely to directly attack us we are at this very moment paying large sums as a direct result of Russia's abhorrent actions. Namely the bill for the Ukrainian refuges which apparently will cost Ireland 2.5B next year. Then there is the costs we are all suffering when it comes to energy costs. So sure the Russians may not be directly attacking but they sure as heck are attacking us economically and big time at that. We without doubt IMHO need to play our own part in the defense and security of Europe and that certainly involves developing a capable intelligence service and a capable albeit small and specialised ( given we are an island) military with maybe the focus more on maritime.
Ireland: Housing for Ukrainian Refugees Next Year Will Cost €2.5 Billion - SchengenVisaInfo.com
I bet the people would say YES. the republic of Ireland is a big weak link and we found that out to our cost in the recent past.
Russian cyber attack is going to cost us another 600m odd according to the hse.
If anything happens to the undersea Cables off our coast the cost to us would be catastrophic ,
Joining NATO would do nothing to prevent an attack outside our waters
Yes it would it would strengthen our capability and followed my increase defense spending which in turn gives us better security over vital infrastructure
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