Greenpeace asks government to send a gunboat!

pete

bonkey wrote:

So what?

Look - someone (Greenpeace) wanted those boats out there. The real question is not whether or not this is likely to happen, or what the boats could do if the ened did arise. The question is what on earth Greenpeace were thinking with a suggestion like this.

No matter which way you look at it, its stupid.

Yes, you're right...Ireland would (most probably) never fire on the vessels. Greenpeace and the US presumably both know this, so why did Greenpeace ask for gunships to protect against the eventuality of illegal entry into our waters?

Similarly, Greenpeace know that even were the situation not so unlikely, that the Irish still couldn't realistically fire on the boats, unless we were willing to risk nuclear contamination of our national waters as a cost of "protecting" them...

No matter which way I look at it - likely, unlikely, or flat-out "not gonna happen", I still end up with the same conclusion...that being that this request was a reputation-damaging gaffe by G'peace.

Dude - go back and read the first post

According to the quoted news story GREENPEACE did not call for the irish navy to intervene the GREEN PARTY did.

Furthermore, nobody asked anyone to fire on anyone else.

bonkey

D'oh. My bad.

In that case...take the above argument and apply it to the Green Party instead...its still just as valid. Its still a nonsensical request...

pete

see, i just don't get why a request from an irish political party that the irish government send out the irish navy to prevent (and not necessarily by force of arms) unwanted vessels entering irish territorial waters is the cause of such ridicule.

what else are the irish navy for, if not to help protect the integrity of our territorial waters?


nobody is suggesting that the Eithne be sent out to sink anyone.

Nuttzz

See..... if we had those fighter jets that people were "discussing" here a while ago we could fly out and stop them

Cant they use a plane to spot these ships and ask them to turn away, but with a sh1t load of nuc material on board I think they can do what they like and no one will get in their way

pete

Although sometimes it may not look like it, there's more to international relations than "yeah? well what are you gonna do about it? you and whose army?"

It's not always about having to go out and physically prevent something from happening.

sliabh

The real issue here is the Green Party request. Not what the Navy can and will do.

The government has requested the ships do not enter Irish waters (as has happend with these sort of shipments in the past) and they have always respected such requests in the past. Not that a ship going from the US to France needs to go through Irish waters anyway.

What this is is a publicity ploy by the Green party. They are making a big deal of this to generate publicity for themselves and their position. And all this discussion is playing along with that.

Well at least I hope they are. Because if they are being serious then they are totally unhinged.

narommy

sliabh wrote:

Because if they are being serious then they are totally unhinged.

Agreed!

I hope they play no part in next government and with ideas like this i can't see many people voting for them...........so i'm happy

There is really no need for them. The larger parties have a reasonable and balanced attitude to the environment.

Moriarty

sliabh wrote:

But as we are not a self declared nuclear free zone a vessel with nuclear material can be in Irish waters legally.

Other countries do approach this differently. I believe in New Zealand the government asks for confirmation that the vessel is nuclear free and if it is not given (as will happen with US ship as the policy is to neither confirm or deny) then it is refused access.

There's no restriction on nuclear materials being in irish waters, but it's against the law for any ship carrying nuclear materials to dock at any port here (s'all in the harbours act).

nadir

I dont get what Greenpeace are complaining about!
I mean this is nuclear material from dissarmed warheads, right! I mean, this is good that they are disposing of the material in Reactors, like instead of just dumping it under ground, they are going to actually going to get rid of it properly, and usefully.
Afaik the States doesn't have the facilities to do this exact job, and France was the best option.
Now im not sure of all the facts here, but am I totally missing the point or something, cause I just dont understand what greenpeace are going on about.

Victor

sliabh wrote:

The air corp Casa's will monitor the vessels to ensure that they remain outside the 200 mile limit.

The territiorial limit is 12nm and it is only within this limit that any action could be taken (probably on grounds of possessing radioactive material). The 200nm is the EEZ, which is high seas and accessible to all.