The Irish Volunteer Force

It's truly amazing what the emerging Fred Thompson personality cult will do to people. Like converting National Review blogger David Freddoso to being a rapid Irish nationalist. The context is Fred Thompson's preposterously jingoistic assertion that --

This country has shed more blood for the liberty of other countries than all other countries put together.

It's easy to debunk. The USSR. And yes, even if they didn't free eastern Europe, the freedom of western Europe couldn't have been won without tens of millions of dead Russians. And then there's the question of the British Empire or Commonwealth, as it was emerging in the 20th century. But Thompson still must be defended so Freddoso has his answer --

So ANZAC and Indian soldiers — and even soldiers stolen by force from occupied Ireland — are to be counted as British? Well, that's interesting.

"Interesting" is one word for it. Whatever the British did in Ireland, they didn't "steal by force" soldiers for either WW1 or WW2. They explicitly avoided conscription for as much of WW1 as possible knowing how badly it would play with nationalist politics, but hundreds of thousands of men signed up anyway. When it was finally imposed in 1918, it backfired, inspiring the kind of rhetoric about illegitimate wars begun by major powers that Freddoso presumably wouldn't want to hear about the lovely war in Iraq.

And in WW2 the Free State was neutral but tens of thousands volunteered, which would get added to those from Northern Ireland. It's probably pointless to pursue whatever logic he has in mind for the claim, but he should know something is up when Mark Steyn is attacking him.