When Ben reported, the other day, on the fact that Ireland is considering a request for military training from Ukraine, the reaction of most readers was a mixture of anger, and amusement. Anger, because yes, on the face of it, Irish troops training one side’s soldiers in a hot war seems directly in conflict with the state’s long-standing, if occasionally contentious, policy of military neutrality. Amusement, because, well, the Ukrainians have held off the might of the Russian Army for half a year. It seems more than a little self-regarding to think that we need the Irish Army – which last fought a war a century ago – to show them how it’s done.
But the details of the Ukrainian request for aid, per the Irish Times, should probably make us pause for thought, if we’re being sensible:
Ukraine has already made a formal request to the Republic for expertise in demining and ordnance disposal, an area where the Defence Forces have extensive experiences.
This is not, then, a request for training in how to kill Russians. It’s a request for training on how to dispose of weapons, and how to remove landmines from the battlefield.
Landmines are an especially evil weapon. They are evil for two reasons: First, they are not designed to kill, but to maim. The theory being that soldiers, being human, will be less likely to leave an injured colleague behind than a dead one. Blow off someone’s leg, and you take three or four soldiers off the battlefield at once, as they carry him to the medics.
Second, they are evil because unlike artillery, or cruise missiles, they do not stop firing when the war ends. They stay where they are, indiscriminately, awaiting the farmer, or the child, or the animal, that’s unlucky enough to step on the mine that the combatants forgot.
It is to the immense credit of the Irish Army that they have expertise in removing these things. It is something that we, as a country, should be very proud of: That Irish soldiers, in troubled places around the world, have saved the limbs and lives of children who will never even know that they have reason to be thankful. Whatever your views on neutrality, and whatever your views on the country, this is a contribution to the world that Irish people should be very proud of.
It is also something to be critical of the Ukrainians over, though: The Russians have not been the only people, in this war, to plant mines. Large swathes of the Ukrainian battlefield have been mined by the Ukrainians themselves, as well as the Russians. And though they should never have used such weapons to begin with, it is at least encouraging that the Ukrainians want training in how to find, unearth, and disarm them.
So is this, then, a request that Ireland can, in good conscience, decline? We are not being asked here to help the Ukrainians target their artillery at Russian soldiers – the Americans are doing that for them. We are not being asked to train commandos to raid and liquidate Russian positions. What we are being asked to do, it appears, is to help remove some of the worst weapons mankind has devised from the battlefield.
This is not knowledge that will help Ukraine win the war. It is, I think, knowledge that will help save many people, in the years to come, from horrible and unnecessary injuries. My own view is that if this is the thing being asked of us, we have a moral duty to provide it. Not for the sake of Ukraine the belligerent, but for the sake of sheer decency.