No Tonic For Our Troops
The recent visit of Brigadier General Frank Leidenberger to Dublin as head of the German-led EU Battlegroup has raised questions over Ireland’s commitment to the force. Jackie Hayden talks to Roger Cole, Chair of PANA (Peace & Neutrality Alliance).
Jackie Hayden, 15 Jun 2012
It’s possible that you’ve never heard of the EU Battlegroup. No, it’s not the pool the Irish soccer team have drawn in Euro 2012. It’s a military unit that’s part of the Common Security and Defence Policy of the EU. Funded by a coalition of member states, there are 18 rotating Battlegroups made up of 1,500 troops, with two available for deployment at any given time. Ireland is currently part of the Battlegroup led by Germany. NATO-member countries such as Norway and Turkey, which are not part of the EU, are also members of EU Battlegroups.
But according to peace activist Roger Cole, “A recent article in the Irish Defence Forces magazine An Cosantoir gave the impression that the number will actually be 3,000. However, so few people even know that these Battlegroups exist at all. There’s a complete media block-out on this process. We’re talking about 175 Irish soldiers involved. If there’s a Battlegroup of 3,000 soldiers, for every single soldier you sent into the field, you need about seven soldiers to back them up. This is a big commitment of around 24,000 for each of the two groups.”
More alarming, perhaps, is the fact, as Cole points out, that “The EU now has the military capability to go to war anywhere in a 6,000 kilometre radius of the borders of the EU at five days notice. The military contribution from the Irish includes personnel carriers armed with machine guns and cannons, sniper rifles and drones. This is sometimes passed off as a unit to provide “humanitarian” aid to help in floods and so on. What do they need such heavy duty weaponry for if their interests are purely humanitarian?”
Daniel Keohane, head of strategic affairs for the Brussels-based FRIDE (Foundation for International Relations Through Dialogue), admits that he was not aware that we had drones at all. He makes the point that it can often be essential to have heavyweight military back-up in humanitarian operations– to protect those doing the protecting, as it were.
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