OPINION:Voting no is not a vote against the European Union. It is a vote against the militarisation of Europe, writes Edward Horgan.
THE IRAQ war debacle with up to one million dead should sound the death knell for militarism. Instead, the Lisbon Treaty promotes militarism and will mean the death of Irish neutrality.
Tom Clonan was correct when he wrote in this newspaper recently that "many military issues have been covered in previous [ EU] accords".
The hidden agenda in the Lisbon Treaty is that it is part of a continuum of European and international developments that promotes militarism and erodes neutrality as a peace maintenance option. The Lisbon Treaty, or EU constitution in disguise, will effectively end any pretence of Irish neutrality.
In my view, Clonan is wrong to claim that "the Lisbon Treaty . . . does not impact on Ireland's neutrality or upon Ireland's sovereignty".
Neutrality is not an end in itself. Its primary value is the benefit it confers on the citizens of a particular state and on humanity as a whole. Sweden and Switzerland are the best examples of neutral, sovereign and prosperous states for over 200 years.
Ireland was heading in that direction until our Government abandoned Irish neutrality by breaching the Hague Convention on Neutrality in March 2003 by allowing US troops through Shannon airport (Judge Kearns ruling in Horgan v Ireland).
Our Government was unable to resist US pressure to participate in the Iraq war and will be unable to resist European pressure to participate in neo-colonial ventures such as the EU Chad mission. The debased neutrality now claimed by Ireland is not just worthless, it is fraudulent.
Clonan contends that voting yes to Lisbon would lead to allowing the EU "to take robust and rapid action - independent of Nato or the US - to counter threats of genocide, terrorism or criminality within its sphere of influence". He cites the EU mission to Chad as an example.
The EU's only legitimate military "sphere of influence" is within the borders of the EU, except operating within the principle of the UN Charter.
Clonan fails to mention the UN anywhere in his article, even though the genocide prevention role he assigns to the EU and Nato is properly the role of the UN.
The EU and Nato are replacing the UN as the primary organisation responsible for international peace.
With the UN and international law neutered, there will be no higher authority if some of these EU or Nato countries are complicit in crimes against humanity. Let's not forget the lessons of history - Germany (Herero genocide 1904-1907), Turkey (Armenian genocide 1915), Germany again (Holocaust second World War), France in Rwanda, US in Cambodia/Vietnam, US/Britain/Spain in Iraq - these are some of the complex international and humanitarian implications that are being ignored in the debate on the Lisbon Treaty.
Clonan mentions the issue of creating a "pan-European army to rival Nato". The reality is that Nato and the EU army are two cutting edges of a double-edged sword.
Nato has been reprogrammed into an offensive army projecting neo-conservative western "civilisation" and economic dominance.
The EU army, with comprehensive Nato overlap (interoperability), is being crafted to project European economic interests and power on the one hand, while enhancing "Fortress Europe", to keep the "others" out. These "others" are our fellow human beings, whose impoverishment has its taproots in colonialism and cold war proxy wars.
The EU has been correctly credited with creating a zone of peace in Europe, almost unique in the history of humanity. It is this aspect of the EU that we need to promote and protect. Voting no is not a vote against the European Union. It is a vote against the militarisation of Europe and for a Europe that should be working to reform and strengthen the United Nations, not undermining it.
The counter argument that the UN is powerless to prevent genocide and crimes against humanity is only valid in so far as the UN controlling powers - China, US, Russia, Britain and France - have consistently refused the UN resources to deal with these crises.
The UN has been made powerless by design so that the privileged West and North can continue to exploit the majority world.
Irish troops are now inappropriately propping up a French client military dictatorship in Chad.
Instead of preventing genocide, they are unwittingly enabling the genocide in Darfur to continue.
Ireland had a long and honourable history of supporting the United Nations peacekeeping and neutral, untied, Third World development.
Our Government abandoned this altruistic and commonsense approach when the Oireachtas voted to support the unlawful and unjustified war in Iraq.
Voting no to Lisbon will force a rethink throughout Europe on whether the EU will become a fortress super-state, or whether it will continue to be an example - and advocate - of global peace and justice.
Surely one million Iraqi dead is reason enough to vote for peace by peaceful means.
Voting no to Lisbon is also voting yes to a more democratic Europe.
Edward Horgan is a former member of the Defence Forces and is a postgraduate researcher at the University of Limerick, specialising in UN reform and international peace