Evacuation of Sudan/Irish citizens

i heard from radio on a few occasions that the AT are not allowed to be armed on this mission . I do not know if is as per Djibouti rules or Irish/UN regulations re evacuating citizens in a war situation . I am open to correction. On radio yesterday there was a lady on talking about the bravery of these ‘ extremely well trained soldiers. She seems to be involved with a group supporting the wives/partners of these soldiers. She even said that they beat the Americans in a sniper/target shooting competition recently. Also gave the clear impression that the 12 AR are in Sudan in the thick of being involved in the evacuation of Irish citizens. Unless they are involved covertly my understanding is that they are based on Djibouti and help manage the arrival of Irish citizens there.

i would expect the British, Egyptians, Turks, German, Spanish, French, etc, ‘Special Forces’ are adequately resourced - personnel wise - and adding personnel from other nations would be taking up very valuable space/ surplus to requirements.

i wonder does Ireland have an ambassador in Sudan or is it ‘run ‘ from the Irish embassy in Kenya or Egypt. Maybe it has a consulate there which was the case at one point.

That Ireland should have a suitable aircraft to evacuate Irish citizens in very risky/ war situations - probably cost millions + annual cost re maintenance, personnel,etc, is the same argument re beefing up our defence capacity in case we are ever threatened/ attacked. We seem to want to be independant in all situations re evacuations, sovereignty being attacked/ threatened.

unless the Maltas’ of this world threatened / attacked us , we would not have a ‘ hope in hell’ of defending ourselves. IMO the much better and much cheaper option is to upgrade our listening/observation capabilities as to what’s going on around us - both at sea, on land and in the skies and inform the ‘ appropriate authorities’ eg US, UK with the understanding that they would take appropriate action.

For God sake, what would Ireland need to stop the Russian Submarines /other sea craft cutting communication cables anyplace off our coast. Ring the fishermen operation out off the Cork coast???? . Or if it found Russian military aircraft constantly flying dangerously close / skirting by Irish air space- call a meeting of the UN / call in the Russian ambassador / write a stiff letter to Putin / reciprocate the action by doing something similar - ho wait I completely forgot how big RU is , how far away it is, what Putin might cause us of and take any one or a number of the possibility of thousands of actions including the nuclear option.

Best and cheapest option is to join NATO. It might have made sense not to be a NATO member when it was formed BUT things have changed utterly in the meantime and not in a good way re soverignty, food security , refugees, cost of living, peace, suffering of millions , etc