Madam, - The Irish Times(September 22nd) carried a report on the Irish Army training to participate with the European Union Nordic Battle Group. It includes a suggestion by its Commander, Gen Jan Stefan Andersson that it could be deployed to help with natural disasters and humanitarian crises. He apparently thought of this idea while sitting on his sofa.
While I will have to stop myself from making any remarks about armchair generals, I have to point out that the pictures of the training exercises above the article include heavily armed soldiers and a tank. Exactly what role tanks and heavily armed troops play in helping out in floods is not clear.
In fact, since the equipment of the EU Nordic Battle Groups includes CV combat vehicles, mowag Piranha troop carriers, Bofors AT4 light anti-tank weapons, Psg 90 sniper rifles and JAS 39 Gripen fighter aircraft I think it is only more than reasonable to state that the whole point of an EU Battle Group is to go into battle.
If the EU wants to help in humanitarian crises, then it seems only logical that it should have created a group designed for such in the first place.
The truth, however, is the EU political elite and its media knew exactly what they were doing when they established the Battle Groups. They were designed to go into battle, to go to war. All the states in the EU Nordic Battle Group, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Norway and Sweden already have troops taking part in the Afghanistan war. Finland has increased the number of troops it has sent there.
When the Nordic Battle Group becomes operational in 2011 there will be a clamour among the supporters of the militarisation of the EU which was consolidated by the Lisbon Treaty to send it to help out in that particular "humanitarian war".
When the supporters of the Lisbon Treaty promised it would help to create jobs, I strongly suspect the Irish people who were dragooned into voting for it because of those jobs, little thought that they might exist in Afghanistan, or indeed if US Senator Graham gets his way, in Iran as well. War will be used by supporters of the neo-liberal militarist ideology that has long dominated the Irish political/media elite if they have their way. They predecessors got their way 96 years ago. Let us all hope that they do not get their way again.
- Yours, etc,
ROGER COLE, Chair, Peace & Neutrality Alliance, Castle Street, Dalkey, Co Dublin.