You’re screaming about defense… Asking what kind of defense you think needs to improve is a basic question.
Citing Russian subs coming into our waters is a tad hysterical.
I’ve no issue with money being spent on defense but if we’re talking billions every year then i think it needs to be somewhat practical.
You’ve not thrown out anything of worth on what you think we should do by the by… It’s grand having a few lovely jets but how many would you need fir effective defense? They cost multiples of millions every year and they’ll just be flying over Croke park before All Ireland for the most part.
As one of two men on this forum who has served his country in the armed forces, it never fails to amuse me seeing endless desk jockey types scream about defense and ending neutrality.
Lads are living in cloud cuckoo land. The reality is we are in a new cold war, one much more frightening than before, and the Russians and the Chinese have decided that. The world is dividing into two camps, one led by the US and the other led by the Russians and the Chinese. You don’t want to be in the latter camp, because that’s the camp of authoritarian madness. And if you try to stay outside either camp, especially if you’re a small country and especially if you’re beside Britain and continental Europe, the Russian and Chinese camp will do their damnedest to try and exploit you.
People also have to get real and realise who the enemies of liberal democracy are. They are within. In Ireland they are Gript, Aontu, the rest of the far right, Paddy Cosgrave and his hurlers on the Ditch, Mick Wallace, Clare Daly. And elements within Sinn Fein. In the US it’s Trump, the Republican party, Fox, and pretty much the whole of the right-wing eco-system. In the UK, the Brexit movement.
The threat from within in the US also means the EU has to get serious about upping its military capability. Far too many people have a Mary Poppins view of the world and only understand things through dumb slogans. Reality will dawn, and it will have to dawn. This is a shit situation, but you deal with the world as it is, not how you want it to be.
Johnny waterson of the Irish times done a Wonderful podcast on the shooting of his brother and the early days of the troubles. He said in it for a period the troops were welcomed in the area. Remembers them stacking the shelves in his parents shops.
That’s too complex for lads here who can only understand the Troubles as goodies v baddies.
What happened on this island was deeply complex, and slogans don’t cut it.
At the end of the Troubles, the side who won - the side of Unionism - believed and still believes it lost, and the side which lost - the side of Sinn Fein - believes it won. This sums up so much of what public debate has now become - a performance, a dishonest role playing exercise for a gallery.
Of course in reality, and on a human level, everybody lost.
The most fascinating people in the Troubles are people who fall outside the clichés. Brendan Hughes, who remained bitter to his death that he was sold out because he was a true believer that he was a freedom fighter and a revolutionary. David Ervine, who was a Loyalist with a genuine concern for the working class on all sides, somebody who might have been on the same page as James Connolly. That IRA fella in the Spotlight series, Tommy Gorman, who broke down and asked himself what it had all been for, and said he could have been doing a lot better things with his time. Billy Giles, a Loyalist who featured in the Peter Taylor series, who butchered Catholics and then repented in prison, but couldn’t live with the guilt, and hanged himself.
Joe Brolly’s most fascinating feature is the constant inner churn and turmoil he displays about what happened during the Troubles and the part his family played in it. Giving away that kidney to a man he barely knew was such an obvious display of vicarious public remorse. He’d never have done it if it wasn’t for his family background and the background of the Troubles.
This article I think is the best article about the Troubles I ever read. The humanity drips off it. The human toll. What was it all for indeed.
I don’t see many people present it as goodies v baddies. Where are you getting this? You’ve made up a take to have an argument against.
Yes, it was deeply complex. That’s recognised by everyone everywhere. Duh.
Maybe you’re just trying to be provocative but your winners and losers take is just dumb, it speaks of you not having any handle on the complexity you were just going on about.
