Saw this in todays IT:
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/defence-forces-struggling-to-find-volunteers-for-peacekeeping-missions-1.4611303
I find it an interesting insight into the culture of the Irish military that missions are in doubt due to a lack of volunteers and there is pushback at people being ordered to go. Isn't being told what to do an essential part of the military? Fascinating.
That along with watching the submissions of the representative associations gives an impression its all about working hours & pay, issues of national defense, policy and long term viability of the forces are taking second place to complaining about lack of allowances.
While I agree completely the pay & conditions are ****e & should be improved, if you wanted a 40 hour week with OT & bankers hours, maybe the forces shouldn't have been your first choice.
Pay & conditions are important (morale & retention), but reforming the relationship with the DoD & Minister are too and that's not getting any traction. As we say over here "we're certainly doing a good job admiring the problem".
This one is a longer read, but a very good analysis of the neutrals in Europe as it relates to collective defense.
https://ecfr.eu/publication/ambiguous-alliance-neutrality-opt-outs-and-european-defence/
Great read on the different EU states & the issue of neutrality. Makes me not want to be in Austria :-)
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