Is it time to join Nato

Look Blaaz, I'm wise enough to know I've touched a nerve. Reflexive thoughtless dunderheaded anti-NATO sentiment has long been a sacred cow of certain elements of the left. That's some folks hobby horse and I can live with it.

But what's not kosher is in the act of launching the most despicable war in Europe since WW2, when the Russian state sounds the horn, these chumps come running and start parroting propaganda like clapping seals. Some mealy-mouthed "oh dearisms" about what Putin has done, and then endless rants about NATO.

It's an embarrassment to the left, and they bring shame upon our democracy and the peace that millions have painstakingly built since the end of the Second World War. History will not be kind to the "yeah but" merchants when the cost is counted of this conflict.

To be honest Blaaz, I don't know do you too have a sneaking regard for that type of tought pattern as well. I suspect you might.

As for LC debate? Whatevs, I've minced Francie in this thread and he deserved every word of it. He's a card-carrying "true Irish Republican" making an absolute show of the movement and has an appalling grasp of its principles on the evidence of his showing here.

The political left seriously needs to be wide of the company they're keeping at the moment. There's some very bad actors running the show in places like Beijing, and they do not wish the welfare of European democracies well. The 21st century is not going to be a comfortable one for the rules-based democratic order, and I'll repeat, the political left, particularly the hard-left, would want to do an audit of what they stand for and what company they wish to keep.

Is this the same poster going off on tangents about Coveney? Give over Francie.

NATO isn't a personality contest, it's a military treaty alliance designed to protect the peace in Europe and the democratic dispensation. Like others, I'll refer you to my post on page 1 of this thread: I'm not even necessarily full-on in favour of Ireland joining NATO. My broader point, that NATO has been essential to protect Europe over the course of the 20th and 21st century is correct, and a gilt-edged fact that for whatever reason, drives the cranks nuts.

Facts? Logic? Your last sentence gives the game away Blaaz, those words actually have meaning and aren't punchlines to deploy in a losing argument

Blaaz if you don't think the long European peace isn't down to NATO backstopped by the US military presence after two centuries of the continent tearing itself apart, you don't have bean about what the latter half of the 20th century was about and the last two decades of this one.

Absolutely mystifying take. You want evidence? How about 70 plus years of the major powers of Europe not at their throats with the US as the sword and the shield. If you don't accept that as evidence, you're way beyond hope and are off in your own dogmatic dreamworld.