Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I often get a sense of the surreal when I am in this Chamber because of the common disconnect between the assertions and statements of this Government and the reality, outside in the real world, to which those statements relate. On no issue is that feeling more acute than on the issue of Ireland's supposed military neutrality and the repeated assertions of the Minister of State at the Department of Defence, Deputy Paul Kehoe, and the Government about their commitment to military neutrality and peace as against the reality of what this country is doing on the question of war and militarism. In this context, the Government's commitment to military neutrality brings to mind George Orwell's famous references to doublespeak and Big Brother's slogans that "War is Peace", "Freedom is Slavery" and "Ignorance is Strength".

I do not see how the Government could possibly contend that Irish Government policy, now or previously under Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael, adheres even to the principles set out in the Government's amendment to Sinn Féin's neutrality Bill. Article 29 is quoted in the amendment as affirming Ireland’s "devotion to the ideal of peace and friendly co-operation amongst nations founded on international justice and morality". Article 29.2 affirms Ireland’s "adherence to the principle of the pacific settlement of international disputes by international arbitration or judicial determination". Will the Minister of State please explain to me how those imperatives, set out in the Government amendment, tally with allowing Shannon Airport to be used in the context of US military action and the destruction and devastation it has inflicted in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen or Syria? How could any of those things be described as according with "devotion to the ideal of peace and friendly co-operation" or the "pacific settlement of international disputes by international arbitration or judicial determination"? That is not what they are doing.

There is no international arbitration or judicial determination in the decision of the United States, as confirmed on 23 October, to use depleted uranium weapons in Syria. Do the Ministers condemn that? Do they abhor it? Does it concern them? Has it got anything whatsoever to do with international arbitration, judicial determination or the pacific settlement of international disputes? No, it has not. It involves using disgusting weapons of mass destruction to kill people, poison people, irradiate the environment in which they live and poison their water and their land, producing higher infant mortality rates and a disgusting spike in the levels of cancers and deformities among young children. Syria has been ravaged as a result of the recent war, as was Iraq. These are the same depleted uranium weapons used by the same US-led military coalition as in 2003 and the previous war to poison Iraq, leading to enormous, obscene rises in the level of infant deformation, disability and mortality. In the lowest estimates 250,000 people have been killed in Iraq and, in the highest estimates, 1 million have been killed, directly or indirectly, as a result of US military action.

What the hell does that have to do with the imperatives the Minister of State claims to uphold? What does it have to do with what is happening in Iraq, where 5,000 US military personnel are working with Iraqi and Kurdish forces in trying to retake the city of Mosul, where the United Nations fears there will be an enormous humanitarian crisis which will result in 700,000 people fleeing the city? The UN camps can accommodate only 60,000. More destruction will be wreaked on Iraqi cities that have already been decimated as a result of the US-led war starting in 2003 with all of the spillover effects that have led to the destabilisation of Syria and the obscene destruction and killing that is taking place, in which the United States continues to participate. It recently killed 56 civilians in Manbij.

What does it have to do with what they are doing in Yemen? It has just been announced that in October alone there were 1,400 cases of cholera in Yemen where a major outbreak was declared as a result of 18 months of war. The majority of health facilities and clean water supplies have been destroyed by the US-supported, Saudi-led coalition which is bombing the hell out of Yemen.

What does it have to do with the peaceful settlement of international disputes? It is just warmongering and wanton destruction of innocent civilians, causing millions to be displaced, using obscene weapons, and we are facilitating it at Shannon Airport. Any reasonable definition of neutrality, as the Hague Convention makes clear, does not allow for weapons of war to be moved through neutral states when used in that sort of military action. What is worse is that we have had a small number of troops under NATO command in Afghanistan in what was clearly a retaliatory war, led by the United States in response to the horrendous events of 11 September 2001. There have been 15 years of war which have destroyed society in Afghanistan which we have facilitated every inch of the way.

How can the Minister of State say we are upholding Ireland’s military neutrality or adhering to the principles he asserts? It is self-evident that are not and Orwellian to suggest we are. That is why we need this neutrality Bill to lock into the Constitution the bringing into effect of the principles the Minister of State says he is upholding in order that there would be no swivel room to allow him to shred military neutrality by implicating us in these wars, mass destruction and killing and supporting a major imperial power in its vicious, brutal, cruel and destructive military actions in the Middle East. It is even more the case with Mr. Trump who says: “We will spend what we need to rebuild our military. It is the cheapest investment we can make. We will develop, build and purchase the best equipment known to mankind. Our military dominance must be unquestioned.” That is his policy. Are we going to facilitate a state that has that attitude towards military dominance, a clearly expressed imperial perspective? If we are, it is an affront to any claim that we uphold military neutrality. If the Minister of State is serious about the principles he has included in his amendment, he has no choice but to support the Bill brought forward by Sinn Féin. Anything less would be hypocrisy and show him up as trying to fool the people, but they are not fooled.

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