Fell from a window.
"Russia can cause major disruption to Irish economy by funding Irish groups that will do it’s bidding"
And why we should be far more careful with vetting who is arriving in our airports & ports. We are hopelessly naïve in such matters, far too trusting.
Carlson thinks he is doing some kind of a service interviewing a man who blows his internal opponents out of the sky.
Point of order but I don't think Carlson is operating under any belief he's providing a journalistic service; he's a right wing demagogue who scarpered from any concept of robust debate around the time Jon Stewart handed him his áss. His credentials as a journalist are shot, but he has made bank with his contrarian Last Angry Conservative act - and seems to have become enamoured with this whole "illiberal" quasi-democratic act of Putin's. We know of course Carlson hates Trump but I'm not sure he hates what Trump is trying to achieve - the El Presidente, strongman quasi-king. And to that, someone like Putin is a god.
How's that guy from Carlow who was a prominent journalist in Moscow and who used to sometimes appear on podcasts etc defending the Russian regime?
On the assumption the what questions TC asks Putin are put into the media , the simplest way to establish the balance of the interview is for someone to put up a list of the questions that TC did NOT ask Putin
Carlson thinks he is doing some kind of a service interviewing a man who blows his internal opponents out of the sky. Throws them out of windows. Poisons them. Bans political rivals from running against him over spelling mistakes on application forms. Arrests old women and little girls for laying flowers and holding placards. What insight will such an interview reveal I wonder? Putin is a proven beyond a shadow of a doubt liar . The words from his mouth have less than zero value and utterly meaningless. We watched him rant and rave in that statement to the world on the eve on the invasion. All meaningless clap trap spouted with his ‘serious’ face on. Stating objectives and grievances that have long disappeared and being discredited. Putin is going to inform us here in the west that our deep state is corrupt and we are only pawns voting for puppet politician's. Meanwhile people flood into our country’s trying to get away from actual corrupt politicians and governments like his. Not buying that .
"
As a nation one should be able to monitor and defend its own sovereignty and not rely on the UK, NATO or a few fishing vessels. Ireland is weak and naive.
I do not believe , for one second, that NATO would NOW expect ireland to invest €11 m annually in arms investment - when one considers the side of the Irish economy.
It may have made sense not to join NATO up till now but things have changed big time over the last Number of years eg invasion of UKr; cyber attack on the HSE, interference in USA elections.
Look at Finland and Sweden. Both were staunchly against joining NATO up to recently. But that all changed because of above
i think that it makes perfect sense, IN PRINCIPAL, for Ireland to use a UK service , eg aerial surveillance, that is of benefit to Ireland and the UK . It’s a costly exercise that Irl can ill afford. The service can track submarines, suspected illegal imports, suspicious ships eg cable cutters, likely attacks, etc. The main problem with the service is that the UK do not allow any Irish staff to be part of the crew
Putin’s ’short term objective is to get back to the ‘USSR ‘ position ie the geographical position re power and land pre 1991. He is attempting to ‘chip’ away at that. His long term objective is to dominate the world re his vision of how each country is set up, who controls it - aka as per the way Putin wants it controlled - they are all complying to The Russian way of running a country, etc, etc.
So, some boardies here are suggesting the since we have not been atttacked in the last 100 years we will not be attacked in the next 100 yrs. we now know they Ru will ‘stick its oar in’ when it can, where it can and with what it can .
Russia does not have to have one soldier’s foot on Irish soil - apart from all those feet at the Ru embassy in Dublin, all needed re
-cut the grass
- clean the windows
-make the tea
-clean the windows
- put out the bins
-walk the dogs
-do the shoppin
-drive the cars x 3
-sweep the footpaths
-weed the flower beds
-make the beds
- hoover the hall, stairs , landing and all rooms
-polish/ dust the furniture.
-guard at entrance gate x2
-hall porter
-valet
-clothes ironer
-document filer
- car polisher
-puncture repairer
- house keeper
-cook x2
-gardener
-outside maintenance
-inside maintenance
-route planner
That leaves Circa 6 to 8 staff to do the core task of the embassy re dealing with its counterparts in the Irish gov and in a diplomatic way. So it looks like that the Irish gov has little room for manoeuvre re requesting a staff reduction!!!!!
RUSSIA ATTACKING IRELAND - POSSIBILITIES
Russia can do untoward damage using ICT, REMOTELY, by attacking all the gov departments , simi states and the big companies for starters .
Russia can do untoward damage by launching all kinds of missiles - including drones- from submarines
Russia can do untoward damage by cutting/blowing up undersea cables/supply pipes
Russia can cause major disruption to Irish economy by funding Irish groups that will do it’s bidding
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Bayraktar and similar size drones only made sense when opponent have no means of countering them. That is why they were used in Africa or Afghanistan or recently in Armenia/Azeri conflict.
Smaller drones are much better choice as we see in Ukraine or Iraq, Red Sea... They are far cheaper so they can be procured and used in numbers therefore they are more effective.
The TB2 was never meant for high intensity combat its primarily a recon platform with a small payload, though the Turks have already started working on their Ukrainian facilities that should become operational early to mid 2025.
The US is already actively testing the loyal wingman program drones that will fly along side the F35 and the NGAAD 6th generation aircraft for Both target acquisition and bluffing air defences so they can be taken out by long range strikes reducing risk to aircraft, they are also testing swarms of mini drones that can be deployed from cannister on strike aircraft to overload air defence radars
The majority of Nato countries don't spend the requisite 2% of gdp 7 out of 30 do the majority don't,we wouldn't need to spend 11 billion the defence forces want spending to be brought to 1.5 -2bn per year, for most part our average spend is usually less than 1 billion which 400 million goes on salary and pensions ,
He referred to it as '' war'' 26 times in that video, he is currently getting dragged to jail by his wavy locks kicking and screaming like a girl
victorfranco and milominderbender registered on Jan 24th and 25th.
Seem to have a lot to say and argue about with others.
I wonder who they were previously
It's not a case of "spending", as in throwing money at NATO. This can be furnished in many ways that don't involve spending money directly on defence. Which people don't seem to realise and throw the "we need money for houses and healthcare" argument out....
Taken from the NATO website:
"Expenditure for the military component of mixed civilian-military activities is included, but only when the military component can be specifically accounted for or estimated. For example, these include airfields, meteorological services, aids to navigation, joint procurement services, research and development.
Research and development (R&D) costs are included in defence expenditure. R&D costs also include expenditure for those projects that do not successfully lead to production of equipment."
NATO - Topic: Defence expenditures and NATO’s 2% guideline
R&D already happens in various multinationals in Ireland, but, aren't accounted for, stopovers/overflights which happen already account towards it... sending troops to Cyprus to train Ukrainian's on EOD measures, counts towards it... KFOR counts towards it, previous presence in nearly every NATO mission since the 90's counts towards it...
All things Ireland is already doing.
Under the new Hybrid warfare domain, Ireland already spends 100's of millions (if not billons) on security in the cyber warfare and critical infrastructure domains. Along with already securing supply technological chains which supply NATO systems manufacturers.
Worked correctly, and letting other companies into Ireland, which don't have to necessarily be weapons, it could be comms systems etc... Ireland could grow income to offset the 2% bill.
Taking this into account, I wouldn't be surprised if Ireland was already past the 1% mark.
He does !!!
Putin propaganda machine is in full swing to stop US aid.
Ive heard the tb2 is still used for recon and guidance for other drones, and it is occasionally used to test Russian air defences and stretch their cover.
In sufficient numbers and with good coordination they might be able to identify EW weapons or even to overwhelm Russian air defences.
They will never achieve the success of the first few months where a tb2 was taking out multiple tanks with impunity, but it still seems to have value.
Looking to NATOs defence planning, it definitely plays a part and could be paired with f35s or future aircraft to make a manned/unmanned pairings.
I think its like the whole "whats the point of the tank anymore" analysis that comes out of this war. Tanks arent particularly useful if they arent used right etc.
I wouldnt write off medium drones just yet!
Nothing to do with war crimes and constantly threatening and interfering with other countries no?
Joining Nato would require us to spend 2% of GDP on defence. Thats approx 11bn a year, compared to less than 2bn a year now. Where do we get this money from?
Further, if Ireland was in NATO in 2001 we wouldve been obliged to decalre war on Afghanistan under Art 5.
The dirty little secret of Irish defense is that we allow (and sometimes pay) the Brits to protect Irish airspace and seas. This suits Ireland cos its cheaper, and it suits the Brits not to have a well armed Irish army beside them.
By all means Ireland should get serious about defence. But EU common defence protects us from our greatest existential threat (who are also our main provider of defense security but anyway) and commits us to assist our EU buddies without having to spend 9bn a year which, lets be honest, has many alternative uses.
there is always going to be cat and mouse with this tech but using EW in such a situation would create a diplomatic incident , it would be the same as shooting at a plane, it wouldnt happen in the normal course of events.
as it's been mentioned here a lot, and you can't link to any media source without a "oh well you can't believe them, they side with X"...
Here is the report which was presented to the UK by Policy Exchange (a not so party agnostic think tank) who suggest policy changes to government.
Report is quite long, but detailed, and has an interesting amount of history included (which of course is UK centric (I'd be interested to here any rebuffs from an Irish history perspective, history was never my favourite subject in school, but, as I've gotten older, I've started to appreciate it more)).
Report is called "Closing the back door - Rediscovering Northern Ireland’s Role in British National Security"
Link -> Policy Exchange - Closing the Back Door
and the fact that they are an imperialist, nasty authoritarian dictatorship and pretty much the antithesis of everything Ireland is as a country and society given we live in a free open and for all its warts democratic society.
Well comrade Victor I know the Russian dictatorships wizard spider gang cyber attacked our health service because the Irish government told us that is who did it.
The swedes with one of the most modern and advanced military nations anywhere in Europe,
Just look at the Danes similar gpd and population to our own and they have a well equipped and trained defence forces including multiple modern fighters
Sweden and Finland joining NATO shows the situation has changed.
It can be argued the security situation in Europe has changed dramatically in the last two years and Russia is a threat to everyone. Many countries are doing something about their defense, others think they are special. When you still hear opinions like "Russia isn't going to invade anyone" or "NATO is history" it should be obvious that's just the vatniks talking.
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