Posted on 07/28/2005 5:50:14 AM PDT by infocats
"As far as who won. We did. Celts of every stripe, Catholic, Protestant - whatever. Descendants of Ireland and Scotland live, prosper and lead in every advanced nation in the world. We are no longer the bog trotters or servants. Ireland in its own right is the powerhouse of the European economy. And Ulster, well its been so shattered over the past hundred years that it will take them time to catch up to the changes in the world that have come to the US and Britain, where for the most part the idea of a people being divided by how they worship the same God is silly."
Very good statement!
Give peace a chance and to the holders of old grudges, give it a rest. I share a name with famous IRA leaders, and my ancestors were kicked off of lands by Cromwell's minions 400 years ago, but that was ancient history. I never liked the IRA, any more than I like Arafat or Bin Laden, and anyone who hates terrorism should hate the IRA, they taught the Jihadists a thing or two that have led to dead Israelis, Americans, and Muslims ... They are all the same breed of extremist murderers.
The IRA was a useless and dangerous terrorist organization that did nothing to help Northern Ireland, but hurt it immensely, and closing the chapter on their destructiveness is a GOOD THING all around.
Hurrah!
(Account of murder of Joanna Mather deleted)
"The moral of the story? Never, ever believe anything that the IRA says. This is an ethnic-cleansing movement that has evolved to gangsterism in the course of 35 years. It is based on the fantasy that the Republic declared in 1916 is a reality and that the Treaty with Britain that was approved by the Dail in 1921 was illegitimate. Until this day, its mouthpiece, Sinn Fein, regards itself as the true expression of the will of the people of the island of Ireland. We're dealing here with an organization suffering from an extreme case of schizophrenia. It's in the light of this delusional state that its statement must be read."
Interesting point concerning 1916 vs the later UK/Ireland treaty ... The degree to which this terrorist movement's claims echoe the claims of terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad vis a vis Isreal is eerie.
We will be waiting to see the Colombia IRA Marxist terrorist trainers extradited to Colombia for prosecution and how about the killers of the McCartney man?
BINGO!!! See my next post.
I think that it is something else. Why would IRA put down their weapons if they were not certain of the victory? My take is that the British/English establishment started to see Islamism in UK as a mortal danger. All other conflicts are to be put aside!
So the establishment said to IRA: "no need to fight, we will give you what you want, slowly and in a discreet way so we do not lose our face, we need to focus on the threat to our survival"
See Michael Collins to understand Brits versus Irish.
In terms of legitimizing the blunt political instruments and ruthless tactics employed by the IRA and Sinn Fein, then yes, I suppose you could say that their strategy has-in large measure-succeeded.
On the other hand, the campaign of terror conducted by the Provos has only undermined the cause of constitutional nationalism.
In terms of ensuring the protection of the civil rights of Catholics living in N. Ireland, and advancing their chief purported goal, i.e. a united republic, the IRA has been a miserable, unmitigated failure.
I don't view this as a tactical retreat by the British government, even though their choice to release a prominent convict from the republican side of this conflict elicited howls of outrage from Loyalists.
I do agree that this decision is intertwined-to a substantial degree-with the massacres that unfolded on the Tube several weeks ago.
After the Omagh atrocity and the September 11th attacks-one of the consequences of that massacre being an immediate cessation of funds flowing into the coffers of the IRA from the United States-I don't believe that Sinn Fein could be seen as even tacitly endorsing terrorism as a legitimate political tactic.
The mass homicide perpetrated by Islamic fascists on London mass transit merely crystallized a decision that Sinn Fein had already arrived at several years ago.
I wholeheartedly agree that their promises aren't worth the paper they're written on, but I do believe that-under duress-they've agreed to halt the terrorist attacks.
At least, those directed specifically against their historical enemies.
Once you agree to appease and placate one terrorist group, you've effectively conceded that battling terror on a military level is futile.
If you're willing to dub Yasser Arafat a "peacemaker," even as he strides into the U.N. General Assembly with a sidearm attached to his hip; if you're going to concede virtual autonomy to the Jaffna peninsula, as a result of a two decade-long campaign of ruthlessly meticulous violence targeting security forces and civilians; if you're willing to compromise on core principles with a marginal bands of rogues, whose goals are limited, then what logical objection can be lodged against yielding to a totalistic, absolutist band of lunatics, whose objective is the annihilation of your culture?
No matter how legitimate a particular ethnic or religious group's grievances with the government may be, it is never an excuse to exact revenge on the lives of innocent human beings, who are tangential to the wider conflict.
And the inverse holds true.
Why would someone like Jose Luis Zapatero believe that he can truckle to the unreasonable demands of Al Qaeda-who can not be placated by any conceivable territorial concessions-and then stand firm against the demands of ETA, which is merely requesting the dismemberment of Spain?
The idea that you can feed terror, and not expect any negative consequences is laughable.
They're Marxists who if ever given any resemblance to a majority will tax the Irish to Hell and back returning that nation to it's 'glory days' of pre-1980.
Oh, and they're psychopathic murderers on a definite par with al-Queda.
Another IRA troll zotted!!!
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