Are Defence Forces in need of defence ?

By Archon Saturday October 3rd, 2009

ARE the Defence Forces in need of defence? An Bord Snip’s full frontal demand for a cut in personnel and for the soldier boys to be brought back from Chad rattled them.

McCarthy and his Snippers had a point. The military budget for 2008 was €1.07 billion. The cost of deploying Irish troops on the EU mission in Darfur-Chad for the past year is €59 million. To bring them home: €20m. Keeping them there: €16m.

The United Nations has now promised to reimburse Ireland for its activities in Africa but will only contribute €8.5 million, and that’s to be over several years.

So, it was no coincidence that a shell shocked Bord Snip called for a 520-man reduction in personnel, scrapping the Equitation School, and abandoning all African adventures before making a beeline for Doheny and Nesbitts to steady the nerves.

You see, they also discovered that Defence Minister Willie O’Dea would be splurging over fourteen million euros on ammunition alone (that includes five million for mortar bombs!).

Then there’s the €10.5 million to keep the FCA in bulls wool – the outfit is now called the Brit sounding ‘Reserve Defence Force’.

COLD SWEATS

Indeed, it was no wonder that gun-totin’ Willie had the Snippers breaking out in cold sweat. The military shopping basket he presented to a ‘pauperised’ Cabinet consisted of two new patrol vessels costing €100 million, plus robot spy planes for sea surveillance.

He’s already bought two drone planes from Israel but one headed straight for the Curragh when launched in Chad and was never seen again!

Willie also wants a third Offshore Patrol Vessel, costing another €100 million. This one will be able to carry troops and armoured vehicles for what he calls ‘missions abroad’. Oh, and don’t forget the new steel-hulled ship (a bargain at €3.8m) to replace the Asgard sail-training vessel which sank last year and which the government criminally failed to salvage.

Then there’s the two helicopters he leased for €1.8m. The aircraft were to be used in Chad and it was crucial they were able to airlift soldiers. Sadly, our military genius didn’t check to see if they met the correct requirements to carry troops, and neither did anyone else. It was left to concerned Dutch soldiers to warn that the air certificate limited the helicopters to carrying cargo only! Mr McCarthy and An Bord Snip were not impressed.

ETHICAL ARMS

Last May, Willie awarded a ten million contract to Mitsubishi Motors Ireland for the provision of 320 Pajero 4x4 vehicles. They’ll be used for patrols, prisoner escorts for Gardaí, and escorting Securicor vans carrying cash to banks and post offices. Very important duties, indeed.

He also ordered a fleet of 27 armoured vehicles from South Africa, at a cost of €19.6 million, with the option of another 27.

He then decided the armoured cars needed top of the range surveillance pods and masts in order to provide more accuracy in directing artillery fire and, in a recent multi-million deal, he gave the contract to the Israeli company Elbit Systems Ltd.

Willie clearly likes doing business with Israelis, having earlier purchased 12,000 helmets from them, but the most recent contract is raising eyebrows now that Israel is considered an international pariah after a UN report accused its army of war crimes during the December-January offensive in Gaza.

Willie’s ‘what-me-worry?’ attitude or, as he puts it, his ‘open door’ approach in regard to the acquisition of military equipment sharply contrasts with the ethical line taken by Norway.

“We do not fund companies that directly contribute to violations of international humanitarian law”, said Norwegian Finance minister Kristin Halvorsen. He was referring to Willie’s chums, the Haifa-based Elbit Systems company, which supplies surveillance equipment for the apartheid wall in the West Bank.

COMPO CULTURE

Willie has more to contend with than ethical quibbles: for instance, An Bord Snip’s criticism that the Defence Forces are costing too much raises the possibility that it won’t be long before calls are made also to abolish a largely pointless FCA (sorry, Reserve Defence Force).

To add to his woes, just as the farcical Army deafness controversy ends at a cost of €300 million, another whopper compo controversy is appearing on the horizon, and Willie needs no spy planes to see it.

Recently, a former soldier was awarded three hundred thousand euros in damages for post-traumatic stress disorder arising from his experiences in Lebanon. Within days thirty nine similar High Court claims were lodged. Willie is appealing the award.

DEBATE NEEDED

So perhaps it’s time for a proper debate on the role of the Irish Defence Forces. Should we really be forking out over a billion euros to protect the country from invasion when no one is threatening invasion? Should we be paying millions for the Navy to police Irish fishermen so that French and Spanish fishermen can rip off our fish stocks?

Can this country afford to involve itself in EU ‘peace enforcement’ missions in Africa? An Bord Snip thinks it can’t.

Should we be spending millions in order to form part of a sinister European Rapid Response Force at a time that hard pressed ministers provoke outrage for travelling in army helicopters? Or is the huge maw that swallows up our cash an officially protected part of the State’s anatomy? Not to be touched? Not even by Mr McCarthy and An Bord Snip?

TURF TIMES

If so, here’s a suggestion. Keep the Army as it is, FCA and all. But do as An Bord Snip suggested: dump the imperial EU pretensions and go back to basics. Revive the spirit of the Emergency and get our soldiers to dig turf for the nation’s fuel requirements! If we export enough of the stuff, we’ll boost our GNP.

What’s wrong with recreating that great feeling of national identify, pride, and usefulness – emotions shared by the Army bog-men on Bere Island in the 1940s?

They were the real soldier patriots, not the compo-seekers or the geezers prancing about Afghanistan, Kosovo and other far flung places. They braved thunderstorms, lived in cattle sheds and toiled in the national interest.

They enjoyed themselves too: throwing heavy weights, hop-skip and jumping, leppin’ over hedges and ditches, and joking when a comrade fell into a hole. And the marvelous fraternity induced by concerts around the campfire. And the weekend dances in Bantry, the courting and the lovely marriages.

Ah, the simple pleasure of Irish Army life. Isn’t it time we brought it back? And isn’t it also time we told Willie where to stuff his EU surveillance pods?