NATO Commander Gen. Alexus Grynkewich was in Dublin yesterday where he questioned the viability of Irish neutrality. In an interview at the U.S. embassy with The Irish Times, he said Ireland, “has every right to make sovereign decisions about how they want to invest and take care of things.” However, he believes there is “room in the Irish body politic” to have a conversation about the future position on neutrality. “What are the benefits of this neutrality? And is it fit for purpose for the world that we’re entering into, or not? Ultimately, that’s an Irish decision, and not something that I would weigh in on. But I do think that it’s an important conversation to be had among the Irish people.”
Playing “bad cop” to Grynkewich’s “good cop” is U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker, who claimed last month that Ireland enjoys all the benefits of membership of the alliance while incurring none of the downsides.
