So while Irish voters are getting called a bunch of ingrates in the European Parliament (not least by Irish MEPs), I’m just wondering, surely the best counterargument to questions about Ireland’s commitment to Europe is that 500 Irish soldiers make up a good chunk of the EU force in Chad, protecting refugees from inside Chad and from Darfur?
Mick Fealty writes today about the mission’s first incidents under fire near Goz Baida, and points up the nearly unreported incident where Irish forces did not prevent a UN humanitarian compound from being sacked by rebels - and an ominous round of finger-pointing between Willie O’Dea, the Chadian government and the UN about whose job it is to protect UN aid workers.
Mick wraps this way:
Saturday was little more than a skirmish, and despite the Chadian President’s accusation on Sunday, there doesn’t appear to have been any fatalities. But there is no knowing how this situation will pan out. The minister surely owes it to the troops in Goz Beida, to get it straight before anything more serious happens. Never mind the civilians they have been sent there to protect.
Too right. But something else occurred to me. Irish troops serving in an EU command came under fire on Saturday. The very day Irish voters were being described as, at best, useful idiots for unpleasant No campaigners in newspapers across Europe and in Ireland.
Surely Ireland’s EU deployment to Chad, to prevent genocide (at least in those camps), which I’d already highlighted as a potential argument for Yes campaigners that was never used, is a pretty good retort to Brussels accusations of Irish ingratitude? Combined with David McWilliams’ claim that accession state immigrants wages amounted to a €7.5bn “subsidy” to the enlarged EU*? Taken together, that’s Irish blood and Irish treasure being put on the line for the European project. Somebody in Brussels today should make that case to the French and Germans, rather than simply planning how to reverse Ireland’s No vote, surely?
*personally I think remittances home, including Irish government payouts for dependent children back home in Poland, Latvia, etc would be a better and more defensible number than the wage bill, but probably harder to get
UPDATE: embarrassing typo corrected above
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1 response so far ↓
1 Mark Dowling // Jun 19, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Need to recheck your figures mate. 4,000 Irish troops overseas would be illegal, not to mention that it would be about 33% of the entire Permanent Defence Force - including Air Corps and Navy. As I understand it our contribution is 430.
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