No Tonic For Our Troops

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.
Cole raises another issue of more immediate concern given the current discontent over household charges, and cutbacks in the health service, social welfare and elsewhere. How can Ireland afford such military commitments? “We’re constantly told we have no money and yet the Government,” he argues, “has allocated over €10.7 million to cover the first 120 days of the costs of sending our troops into battle, but so far nothing to cover engagements after that.
“If there is one thing that is certain, going on observation of conflicts in the past, it is that once our troops are sent into a war situation, it will be a hell of a lot longer than 120 days before they are withdrawn. Here we are coming up to the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising and we’re doing exactly what we did when we were part of the British union, sending Irish soldiers into war zones in other countries.”
Keohane points out to me that before Irish troops go to war, there must be a UN resolution to that effect. Then it must be passed by the Dáil. Cole contends that the Lisbon Treaty made it clear that there is no absolute need for a UN mandate before these Battlegroups are sent somewhere. Besides, the EU is now imposing sanctions on Iran without a UN mandate. Will the next step be to go to war without a UN mandate, just like the US and the UK went to war in Iraq with such a mandate?”
I ask Cole to explain why, if there’s a major problem somewhere in the world, we Irish should feel that we have no obligation to help sort it out. His reply is unequivocal.
“We should not get involved in imperial wars. When we first joined the EU, the Irish government produced a White Paper saying it would not affect our neutrality. But this Battlegroup situation changes all that. We’ve had hundreds of years of European nations taking over other people’s countries all over the world while pretending they were there to help. There is a deeply-rooted tradition of Imperialism in Europe. Do we want to help continue that and even be a part of it? You don’t have a tradition of China invading Europe.”
The Peace and Neutrality Alliance identifies with the tradition established by James Connolly that we do not support what Cole describes as ‘imperial wars’. He adds, “What’s worse about all this is that the people do not even know it’s happening. I accept that there may be some people who would agree with it, but even they don’t know about it!”
So, next time two tribes go to war, will Irish troops be on the frontline? It certainly looks like a serious possibility.

Visit PANA (Peace & Neutrality Alliance) at www.pana.ie and FRIDE (Foundation for International Relations Through Dialogue) at fride.org.