Does it strike you that EU countries are getting ready to wage war? Eighteen of them, including Germany, Poland, France and Belgium have “activated the special fiscal flexibility”- in other words, they’re allowed to spend more on weapons than would normally be permitted in EU countries. Poland is spending about 4.7% of GDP on armaments. Germany is spending 2.4 % of GDP,and plans to raise that to 3.5% by 2029. In today’s Irish Times, Sinéad O’Sullivan says that the south of Ireland has a record €1.49 billion defence allocation this year and a €1.7 billion five-year capital programme, but doesn’t have a proper strategy.
Who are these countries getting ready to fight? Why, Russia of course. But wait a minute. Hasn’t Russia been struggling for the past five years to subjugate Ukraine, with little success. How will it be able to fight all those EU countries as well?
I haven’t heard one dissenting voice suggesting EU states feed their people, provide housing, increase education spending, boosting the health service.
So let me remind you of the best comment made about war and its effects. It’s called ‘The Green Fields of France’ and it’s as relevant today as it was in the past
Well how do you do, Private William McBride?
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside,
And I’ll rest for a while in the warm summer sun?
I’ve been walkin’ all day long, and I’m nearly done.
I see by your gravestone you were only 19
When you joined the glorious fallen in 1916
Well, I hope you died quick, and I hope you died clean,
Or Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?
Did they beat the drums slowly,
Did they sound the fife lowly,
Did the rifles fire o’ ye as they lowered you down?
Did the bugle sing The Last Post in chorus?
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?
And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined?
And though you died back in 1916,
To that loyal heart are you always 19?
Or are you a stranger without even a name,
Forever enshrined behind some glass pane
In an old photograph, torn and tattered and stained,
And fading to yellow in a brown, leather frame
Did they beat the drums slowly,
Did they sound the fife lowly,
Did the rifles fire o’ ye as they lowered you down?
Did the bugle sing The Last Post in chorus?
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?
Well the sun’s shining now on these green fields of France;
The warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance.
The trenches have vanished long under the plough
No gas and no barbed wire, no guns firing now.
But here in this graveyard that’s still No Man’s Land
The countless white crosses in mute witness stand
To man’s blind indifference to his fellow man,
And a whole generation who were butchered and damned.
Did they beat the drums slowly,
Did they sound the fife lowly,
Did the rifles fire o’ ye as they lowered you down?
Did the bugle sing The Last Post in chorus?
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?
And I can’t help but wonder, no Willie McBride,
Do all those who lie here, know why they died?
Did you really believe them when they told you ‘The Cause?’
You really believe that this war would end wars?
The suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame,
The killing, the dying, it was all done in vain,
For Willie McBride, it all happened again,
And again, and again, and again, and again!
Did they beat the drums slowly,
Did they sound the fife lowly,
Did the rifles fire o’ ye as they lowered you down?
Did the bugle sing The Last Post in chorus?
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?
Did the bugle sing The Last Post in chorus?
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest?
If Russia didn’t exist the war fanatics would have to invent it. Putin is a psychopathic war monger. (So is Trump.) Putin has destroyed his country’s reputation (so has Trump.) Putin has enriched himself at the expense of his country (as has Trump.) Trump however is feted and sucked up to by Britain whereas mad Vlad has been ostracised. Now we are being drip fed a steady diet of anti Russian propaganda. In 2026. Nobody wants to state the obvious. The reason for the panic is the Russian ass(er) in the White House. If Bush or Biden or Obama were still there NATO wouldn’t lose a night’s sleep.
We could start at home by eliminating the symbols of violence in our society. Let us paint over all the street murals in Northern Ireland, many or which depict people with rifles, armalites and petrol bombs, or otherwise glorify violence and bloodshed.
Well said, Eoghan
Not sure about Bush but the rest are bang on…
Very good jude