The New Model Army ?

The Irish journal Sunday Business Post carries a story about possible future developments of the EU ,one which will be greater European defence integration and co-operation .

''The EU," the Finnish defence minister observes, ''is likely to have a much stronger security and defence dimension in 2020 than it has now."

We read that a new publication from the Paris-based European Union Institute for Security Studies warns of ''explosive tensions'' between a rich, globalised group of countries and poorer, alienated states. If technology is turning the world into a global village, it is a ''village on the brink of revolution'', for reasons of inequality and competition for resources like water, fuel and usable farmland.

The EU will need to pursue the ''morally distasteful, losing strategy'' of strengthening our barriers, if it cannot solve the problems of global misery at their roots. The less developed parts of the world may need ''barrier operations'', or operations to ''shield the global rich from the tensions and problems of the poor''.

It is recommended that the EU should commit itself to have a sizeable force with adequate equipment ready to deploy at any time - over 100,000 in a constant state of readiness, or 300,000 troops allowing for rotation, by 2020. EU member states spend some €250 billion on defence annually, according to 2005 figures .

"Of course, no right minded person wants war," they say, but then turn round and lay down their plans for just that. Plans for achieving their policy ends by cold-blooded murder. Where all other parties utter their sanctimonious opposition to war yet endorse slaughter after slaughter we have asserted that war and organised violence are not the means by which a civilised society can be achieved.