Ireland - now considered one of most vulnerable countries in the EU (defense wise)

US intervention in the case of Ireland being invaded? It would of course depend on who invaded us.

If a US enemy like Russia or China invaded us we could expect to be supplied with the weapons to defend ourselves.
If a US special ally like Israel invaded us we could expect the US to supply the weapons used to invade Ireland.
Both scenarios are, thankfully highly unlikely.
The strength of the Irish lobby in the states is consistently overestimated by Irish people.

It isn't about the Irish lobby. It is about our position. Our location means a hostile fleet based here could severely damage trans Atlantic trade and makes the UK very vulnerable to attack.

Hence the US can't afford to have a hostile force here. And if the army invading is somehow friendly with the US/UK then no amount of deals would make other countries come to our aid and we can't buy enough equipment to deal with a US back force.

People put too much stock in defense treaties. Countries only make defense treaties with countries they have a vested interest in defending for some reason or other and would like to do so anyway. If that interest in defense is removed then they will just ignore the defense treaty. NATO is important in eastern Europe to discourage Russian aggression and give political cover for deploying troops but even outside of NATO the US supplies equipment and training to Ukraine.

I think we should formalise it but it is more of a technicality and would need some exception to the gdp requirement since ours is over inflated.

Oh sorry, I thought you were suggesting there would be serious consequences if a NATO member invaded another country. Obviously that is not the case.

If any of those cnts want us to protect their underwater cables then they should equip and pay us to do it.

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Warned: Uncivil. The site has a swear filter for a reason.

Our terrain is completely unsuitable for large 70 ton tanks and infantry vehicle columns to traverse as well. Unlike the North European plain. We have too many blanket bogs and soft wet ground that would swallow leopard and Abrams tanks for sport.

The only realistic physical invasion threat is our neighbor to the East. They were contemplating it strongly in 1940 for their own security reasons and could well do so again if they feel threatened or in danger of invasion themselves from the continent.

The biggest threats to this country currently are coming from the misinformation sphere sowing discontent.

Some years ago I read that the Irish army had enough ammunition for the, then number of soldiers to fire constantly for 14 minutes.

As long as any invasion doesn’t last longer than 14 minutes we should be grand.

The figure for the British Army is 10 days.

Iceland is sort of vital to NATO given its location. It sits beside the GIUK (Greenland/Iceland/UK) gap into the North Atlantic.Thus any Russian Sub trying to enter the shipping lanes of the Atlantic has to pass close to this area. The USNAVY and Air Force have aircraft monitoring this area. Many years ago the UK and Iceland had a bit of a dispute about the fishing grounds around Iceland where the Royal Navy was deployed to protect their trawlers. After a few months of this, Iceland told USA that unless matter was resolved, the bases on Iceland would be closed. I think thay the yanks told the Brits that the bases were more important than the fish. British were forced to accept that Iceland had right to act in its own territorial waters.

How many minutes of constant fire does an invading force have, given that they have to ship everything.

As for UK, not much we can do about them spending wise. Throw 5 billion at the defence budget same end result. Why bother. Spend it on something more worthwhile.

Yep. Better spent on our ambulance service.

A young guy, father of 3, died recently after a 2 hr wait.