Controversy
It is often claimed that Iceland has a tradition of non-militarisation and should therefore practice pacifism. The ICRU's existence, among other things, has thus generated much controversy with Icelandic Socialists, Social Democrats and other people on the left in Icelandic politics, with the main focus on ICRU deployments with NATO in Iraq, finalized in 2007, and in Afghanistan, ongoing, as not adhering to these principles. This criticism was particularly fierce when Icelandic peacekeepers were injured in a suicide bombing in Kabul in 2004.
In 2008 many of these concerns were answered when the portion of ICRU deployed personnel still wearing a uniform and carrying weapons for self-defense, accounting for a little less than a third of ICRU personnel at that time, changed to civilian clothing and returned their weapons. Now, according to the former Foreign Minister Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir, ICRU personnel do not wear uniforms or carry weapons unless under special circumstances and then only those that have had the appropriate training.
Some controversy remains on ICRU existence in general, but mainly towards ICRU participation in NATO missions in particular.
Read more about this topic: Iceland Crisis Response Unit
Famous quotes containing the word controversy:
“Ours was a highly activist administration, with a lot of controversy involved ... but I’m not sure that it would be inconsistent with my own political nature to do it differently if I had it to do all over again.”
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“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”
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