The Myth of the Pan-European Army

dublin | anti-war / imperialism | opinion/analysis

Friday June 06, 2008 12:32

by Andy McNab

Fantasy versus reality

Opponents of the Lisbon Treaty claim that Ireland will become part of a Pan-European Army.
However their hysteria betrays a profound ignorance of our military weaknesses and indeed the military weakness of the European armies even the big three, German, France and the United Kingdom.
None of the European armies shows any likelihood of being able to overcome nationalistic rivalries, duplication of resources, linguistic difficulties and a plethora of different weapons systems that would make a Pan-European army exist anywhere except in the fantasies of Brussels bureacrats even if a common defence treaty is made official.

The US military has standardised its rank structure, uniforms and weapons.
The US Navy and US Air Force uses the F-18 Hornet.
The US Marines and US Army use the same types of helmet, rifle, squad machine gun, anti-tank weapons, armoured personnel carriers and tanks and ammunition.
Most importantly every member speaks English.
Members come from each of the 50 states and each identifies with the US above his home state.
Each is a volunteer.
There is no compulsory military service in the US.

Contrast that with the British, French and German armies who use the Challenger, Leclerc and Leopard series tanks respectively.
British soldiers use the SA-80 rifle, French troops use the FAMAS and German troops use the Heckler & Koch G36.
Former Eastern European Warsaw Pact nations such as Poland who continue to use Kalashnikov rifles and Russian manufactured T-72 tanks. Each army has a dinstive rank structure, proud nationalist tradition, customs and of course different field uniform.
The Irish Army uses the Steyr rifle and the Mowag Piranha armoured personnel carrier but it does not posses main battle tanks, attack helicopters or armoured mobile artillery.
The 27 nations in Europe use many languages, use a bewildering different range of incompatible weapons and each are fiercely nationalistic.
There is no likelihood that a Pan-European Army could be fielded in battle in the same way as the US, Chinese or Russian armies.
The logistical problems of supplying the right type of ammunition for their different weapons is a nightmare.
If a British armoured vehicle breaks down it cannot be stripped for spare parts to be used by a French vehicle or a Polish vehicle.
For a commander of a field army to constantly switch to French, Polish, Hungarian, Italian or Slovenian to communicate with his subordinate commanders would make a mockery of command and control.
The US military has discovered the their cost the ineffectiveness of various European commands in Iraq.
As public opinion changed in Italy, Spain and Poland those nations withdrew their troops.
If the highly centralised patriotic Russian or Chinese army with standardised weapons and a streamlined command structure ever fought with a disorganised internally divided Pan-European Army the battle would be decided before it even began.
The Irish government has only three Army Brigades at is disposal.
At anyone time we only have the resources to field a battalion of infantry on UN duty.
We simply do not have the resources to afford the arms expenditure of other EU states.
It is obvious that our military commitment to a Pan-European Army would be of little significance.
Our troops would likely be assigned to security rather than to front line duties.