US military planes at Shannon Airport
Further to the assassination of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani by a US drone at Baghdad International Airport in Iraq, last Friday…
This morning on RTÉ’s Today with Seán O’Rourke, presented by Cormac Ó hEadhra, Dublin MEP Clare Daly referred to the killing as a “catastrophic breach of all norms and the crossing of a red line”.
She went on to say Ireland is “culpable or complicit” when it comes to the actions of the US military, given its use of Shannon Airport.
Ms Daly added diplomatic assurances that there are no weapons onboard the planes are not good enough and that is why she and and fellow MEP Mick Wallace attempted to search a US military plane for weapons in Shannon Airport in 2014, They were subsequently arrested.
She said:
“We know from Tarak Kauff and Ken Mayers, the US Army veterans who were in Ireland for most of last year, that they transited when they were in the US Army through Shannon and that they had weaponry on them.
“So there’s no doubt about it. Why else would they be passing through to the Middle East? Thousands of troops are not going on their holidays.
“Clearly they’re engaged in military action and the monitoring of that aircraft by local groups on the ground, Shannonwatch, Shannon Radar, would vindicate that…”
She also said that she believed Tánaiste Simon Coveney should strongly condemn the “unlawful, illegal action of the United States government”.
She added:
“I think, in response he [Coveney] should say that all permission of the US military, to transit through Shannon [Airport] is being halted until the matter is investigated further.”
Meanwhile…
On Thursday, at 7pm, outside the US embassy in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.
The Peace and Neutrality Alliance will hold a protest against a war on Iran.
They write:
The Peace and Neutrality Alliance along with a broad alliance of people from human rights to climate change activists and anti-war groups is calling for your support for this vigil outside the US Embassy in Dublin this Thursday.
Listen back in full here
Does Clare Daly recognize that Soleimani was himself a murderous thug and the ordinary people of Iran and Iraq are flippin’ delighted he has been removed from the stage?
Or is she just screaming “Orange Man Bad” for the heck of it?
Except that back in the real world, Soleimani was revered by ordinary Iranians who rightly credit him with thwarting the rise of ISIS and other Islamic extremist groups in the MENA region. Millions have already showed up to his funeral procession in the cities of Ahvaz and Mashhad – and that’s before his casket reached Tehran https://www.timesofisrael.com/million-man-soleimani-funeral-procession-said-to-be-largest-since-khomeini/
In the run-up to the Iraq invasion it was ‘objectively pro-Saddam’ and ‘anti-American.’ Now it’s “OrAnGe MaN bAd.” Soon enough you’ll just be making angry baby noises.
Hmm I see that my comment and the original comment I replied to both now seem to be gone. Why is that I wonder?
Khomeini is not stupid.
He knows Trump could neutralise his country’s defences without a single American boot on the ground and probably within a few days.
Sometimes you need a bit of shock and awe to keep these Arabs in check.
Arabs form only 2% of the Iranian population
Let’s never forget the time Trump photoshopped his orange head on the body of Rocky and tweeted that as the President of the United States of America. That’s the reality of the abnormal cognitive behaviour of this psychopath. This is not going to end well for anyone, regardless of what type of person the Iranian General was. They are openly offering the sacrifice of their children to be martyrs as opposed to being humiliated by the USA.
How far advanced are the Iranians in terms of their nuclear program?