Is it time to join Nato

Ukraine is being supported by nearly the entire world but it's not all out of goodwill to protect Ukraine, It's to protect their interests and the United States among others see this as a chance to knock out Russia without hardly lifting a finger themselves. They also get to use up surplus and old stock weaponary, Get to try out some of their other stuff which the rest of the world sees so they can seel some weapons and in the sametime show how inferiour Russian weapons are so to deter others from buying Russian. There's a lot more going on then just helping Ukraine out of goodwill.

But we always will depend to some extent on certain countries not attacking us.

As will many other countries.

We're still soverign.

To illustrate; if we were to spend €10bn on defense the US could still simply nuke us. Therefore €10bn later we're still not soverign by your standard. As we still depend on Washington not attacking us.

And probably a few other countries too. We would simply move up the table, a bit, for a time, but ultimately we're never 100% secure.

We always will depend on decisions in other capitals in that regard.

We're still soverign however. As is Cuba, or Mexico. Or Andorra, Monaco, Etc.

Lol ,

Who's throwing a revolution exactly,

No good to join NATO lads it ends up with madness.

The idea that he meant an actual revolution suggests youve been at more than the koolaid.

I wouldnt bet on either happening.

Although, you may like to.

You could win big. Im sure a bookie would give you nice odds. Dont miss out.

Ok look, this is what's going to happen. And I am always right about these things.

The current Government is holding its foreign and security policy consultative forums this month. There will be a report out of that which will shine a light on themes, concerns and unavoidable challenges.

Some time next year, there will be a citizen's assembly on defence, informed by the above exercise and covering inter alia; historical context, global geopolitics, the EU and EUCSDP, NATO, the fallacy of "neutrality", non-alignment, our hollowed out Defence Forces, Double Locks, Triple Locks and the new multi-polar World.

What will come out of that, will be a series of recommendations to the Government, to address and to codify all of the current policy mess into a coherent hierarchy of constitutional position and legislation to flow from it, which can be put to the people in a vote.

Now, I'm not saying it's right that defence posture should be a constitutional clause (in fact it should not) but the constitution is the right place to establish some principles and limits, which cannot be exceeded without further recourse to the people. And those limits may ultimately restrict any Irish Government from joining ANY formal alliance without further reference to the people, which currently isn't required.

And that could provide comfort to many, while still enabling a more robust foreign policy approach.

In any case, this will be all be a matter for the next Government, not this one. And thats why it'll be an important party policy issue, for everyone, heading into the local and European elections of mid 2024 and the General Election of early 2025.

In the meantime, the current Government will carry on with its Defence Forces investment plan and with exploring bi-lateral security cooperation to secure our cyber and infrastructural security, on land and in the ocean, under the aegis of EU PESCO and / or NATO PfP, which is an urgent matter of national social and economic concern and cannot wait for a future clean-sheet policy.

NATO Article 6: Thou shalt not drive over the speed limit, or else you will be fined 2% of your GDP.

You do know we had one Irish soldier murdered and one seriously injured in Lebanon recently, not to mention dozens down the years in different areas of operation.

Being in the military anywhere is a dangerous game, irrespective of whether a deployment is a NATO mission or not.

In point of fact, Ireland has been involved in that KFOR mission, with greater or lesser numbers since it began 24 years ago. We have people there now!

Nato are in Kosovo under a UN mandate and most of the problems comes from Kremlin backed entities in Serbia

He's nor ridiculous, raf jets regularly see off Russian jets in our airspace, and it's they're st petersburg Internet group who held our hse to ransom , an bord plenala recently "shot down" the Russian embassy request to build bunkers on their Orwell Rd premises, just because the red army aren't on our beaches doesn't mean we're not under attack !

I'd imagine renewables will be well established by then !And being the poster boy we'd never take advantage anyway ! Maybe send eammo of on one those new shipping lanes !

They help yes and Ukraine will come out on top in this war because it has the support of most of the world. Whose attacking Ireland before they've attacked other parts of the world? Maybe, they've layed waste to all of NATO and only noble Ireland with it's bought trinkets will turn the tide of war?