Russia-Ukraine War (continuing)

I can’t fathom the mentality of those that think spending on defence is wasted money.

So, car insurance, life insurance, burglar alarms.. anything that is considered defence against something is a waste of money?

wtf is wrong people like this?

These would be the same people that if something did happen would be “oh Jaysus sure the Brits can help us”

We aren’t neutral. The fact we have an agreement with the UK on air defence disproves this bollocks immediately.

1.7b to 2030 is a joke. That’s nothing.

If it was that amount every single year then We’d get heading somewhere.

We cannot keep relying on others to save our asses because the government is afraid of the backward mentality of some of the populace regarding defence.

What can we defend ourselves against if we can’t stop drones? Should we use harsh language?

The majority of asylum seekers just want to work and make money.

I know asylum seekers who in less than a year of arriving here were working and paying taxes, many in vital services like healthcare.

But anyway that's not relevant here.

We do need to increase spending in defense, particularly in radar and sonar and other intelligence gathering areas.

It would be great to stop the drug trafficking also.

I think it's fear mongering anyway.

Russia have to intention of invading Europe.

Trump is a disaster for NATO and Europe and Ukraine but he's gone in 3 years and I hope to God someone normal gets elected, whether that's Democrat or Republican.

Spending money on military is also money in tbe bin

Agree to disagree. Like I said it is like an insurance. You think you are wasting money until you need it.

Look at Ukraine, on paper, they didn’t really need it. There was a pact where Russia said they would not invade them and the US guaranteed their security. Look at where they are now. You may think asylum seekers is a more important issue right now but if all EU countries not bordering Russia followed your advice, trust me that asylum seekers would be the least of your problems right now.

We dont however border with Russia and theres no threats in our vicinity.

The drones are clearly a threat as we saw a few days ago. If they dropped bombs we would have been defenceless. The EU says it was Russia. France has opened an investigation into the drones over their nuclear submarines.

We share a border with the UK. For centuries Ireland was seen as the back door to Britain, and Russia likely feels the same way.

We have a history in this country of waiting for disasters to happen instead of making preparations for them. It's "out of sight out of mind". The 2008 crash is one example.

We also have some public figures - not in the goverment - who in my opinion might collaborate with a Russian occupation.

So you are ok to let these countries spending money on military that benefits you long term but you don’t want to spend a cent.

If tomorrow cables were cut and drones were sent to airports and energy facilities, I am not sure you would be happy to see UK and France just watching on the side.

Another Turkish ship hit by the Orcs.

The Ukrainian Navy said in a statement that the Turkish-flagged ship "VIVA" hit on Saturday was carrying sunflower oil to Egypt, there were no casualties among the 11 sailors on board and the cargo ship was able to continue its movement.

The same statement also mentions that the ship was hit off the Black Sea, in Ukraine's exclusive economic zone, but outside the range of Ukrainian air defense.

Another Turkish-flagged merchant ship was damaged on Friday in a Russian airstrike near Odessa, in the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk.

Is Putrid trying to send a message to dissuade them from getting rid of their S-400s in order to be allowed back in the F-35 program, as rumoured?

Putrid had a meeting with Erdogan yesterday…he could have just told him, like a normal person…

Back door to Britain for centuries but yet nobody has ever managed to pull off an attack on Britain via Ireland

You can easily use google. Don’t let me stop you

No such treaty exists.

It beggars belief how we left ourselves get into this position regarding defence, to be utterly defenceless and soley relying on our neighbour is unforgivable really considering the money this country has seen and pissed away over the years…to neglect defence as badly as we did is unforgivable and its not as if we had to spend enough to become a new superpower, just a few basic essentials would of done, radar, decent navy etc…as an Island it would be fairly easy to have a decent deterrent.

But the reality here is it'll take something real and drastic for us to pull the finger out and even then I wouldn't have much faith tbh.

And let’s be fair, they’d have every right to say “told you so”.

Until we get someone serious about this in government we are going to keep bullshit increases.

The fact Bertie Ahern asked after 9/11 what we need and still did nothing doesn’t fill me with any hope.

Yep, very obvious who America's true friends in Europe are now, and no doubt 'broadly aligning' with their National Security Strategy as the Kremlin would say.

Gonna go on a long rant here but: It's Psychological really, we're not an aggressor nation we're a peaceful one, we only ever really wanted to live in peace and because we're basically far from any major aggressor powers and as far back as WW1 wanted nothing to do with the imperial shenanigans of the time in Europe, hell the English lost control of this country in the end because they threatened to draft the Irish into WW1, it didnt happen but the mere threat was enough for Sinn Fein at the time to win the General Election here and the rest was history. We stayed out of WW2 not because we supported Nazis or such but for pragmatic reasons, we were poor, had limited resources and didn't want to get dragged into a war after less than 20 years of independence (we actually quietly "deported" Allied PoW's over the border while the Germans got locked up till the end of WW2).

We've stayed out of NATO mainly because of the complications over the North and because for much of our existence we were a rather poor country. it was only with the takeoff of the Celtic Tiger that we began to actually have some serious wealth and this was in the post cold war era when most were thinking of peaceful ideals and a hope for the future thus we focused on infrastructure and building things. The 10 years between the fall of the Soviet Union and September 11th could be considered a golden age for civilisation in our part of the world even. It's only when the crash happened in 2008 that things really went to shít for us here.

The Ultimate problem is that until the start of this decade the biggest possible threat to us was the Islamic Terrorists going on a run against us despite it being extremely low, we had no adversaries and our most pressing concerns were economic and dealing with the fallout of the crash hence Defence wasn't a priority, Covid changed things though it seemed to be some kind of collective event that broke the minds of the world and might have been what made that Vatnik PoS Putin decide it was a good idea to invade Ukraine after years of low level "separatist" shenanigans. He thought he could overrun Ukraine, instead he exposed Vatnik Russia as a depraved incompetent Fascist Kleptostate that's put even the Brits at their worst to shame and started the worst land war in Europe since WW2. Only for Biden being president at the time and not that Orange Piece of Shít that Ukraine had enough time along with the rest of Europe to organise an effective response. Between Zelenskyy's defence of Kyiv and the right people being in power at the time I'd dread to think of what kind of situation we'd be in if Trump had won 2020 even.

This is the ultimate problem for our leaders, the world is changing and what once made us safe is no longer so, Our Neutrality is Worth jack squat it's our relative geographical location that's protected us more so than anything. We need to either fix our military to a standard that can at least ensure effective defence against future potential threats effectively or look at joining an EU led Military Alliance or NATO if the US ever manages to survive the Orange Bollocks and get rid of him or it becomes European Led instead.

Vatnik Russia in no uncertain terms is a threat to us, they've been reported to have attempted to Run a terrorist bombing campaign on cargo aircraft in Europe (something we'd be vulnerable to given we're an island) and potentially civilian aircraft as well, they consider us an "unfriendly" nation, they likely launched those drones last week from a ship they had running dark in the Irish Sea considering the reports that have come out and could do something far more sinister as time goes on (they we're responsible for the HSE hack as well as the attackers came from Russia). If the Russian's decided to create serious problems here we'd be in serious danger as we are now. We need to take defence seriously and take absolutely no BS from idiots here who are completely disconnected from the reality that's going on in the East of Europe.