Using the now common “UN approval” endorsement, rather than direct UN leadership, our government has committed large resources and personnel to EU and NATO led military missions. As at July 2008 these included over 780 Irish Army personnel …
EU led military missions:
EUFOR (Operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina),
EUFOR TCHAD/RCA Operation in CHAD and the Central African Republic)
NATO led military missions:
KFOR – International Security Presence in Kosovo
ISAF – the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan – a naked war of aggression.
Organisation for Security & Co-operation in Europe (OSCE – missions to Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Macedonia and Vienna
Direct EU Military Involvement:
EU Military Staff in Brussels and New York
EU Nordic Battlegroup (now completed); we have been committed to creation of future BATTLEGROUPS.
Shannon Airport Abused:
In contradiction to our policy of Neutrality we are assisting US aggression against the peoples of Iraq and Afganistan – providing them with a base. We are even complicite in allowing unchecked movement of prisioners to US centres for torture.
The government has already streched the limits on our ‘Neutrality’ and have committed us to military expenditure and policy far beyond our needs. Do we really need another superpower competing for world markets? Big power politics and “defending economic interests” have been the cause of wars and the denial of democratic rights all over the world. The assurances given following our rejection of the treaty last year are not binding in EU Law; all of the 27 member states would have to re-ratify if they were. The use of complex language and multi-layered legal documents is aimed at deceiving us … on issues of democracy, defence, workers rights and tax policy. In fact, we are being asked to vote on the very SAME treaty, Vote NO, again … for a better Europe, a Europe of equals.
This article first appeared on a printed A4 flyer, a .PDF copy is available for download here… lisbon_treaty.pdf