IRA in arms breakthrough

BBC ^ | 23rd Oct 2001 | BBC

[Benson_Carter]

uh, yeah, there's some backwards logic for ya... the Brits are there to prevent a civil war. Instead, they're the catalyst.

try again

[irishfest]

Substitute "America" for "the English", and "the Middle East" for "Ireland," and your justification for terrorism could havew been spoken by Osama himself. The killers of the IRA - - and the cutthroats in Afghanistan - - thank you.

"America" is not interested in occupying Afghanistan in anything that I am aware of. What are you saying is the justification for the Osama terrorism??

[slhill]

So you believe that the British have some sort of interest in a civil war, do you? And what interest might that be? Do they make money out of it? Do they achieve greater piece for their citizens? Do they achieve some bizarre form of political ascendancy? What, precisely, would be the point for the British?

[KEVLAR]

Well said, I often wonder why we only hear about the IRA guns. They the only ones armed?

[Benson_Carter]

the last foothold of the Crown's Empire? I dunno, you tell me.

What was that about Scottish self-determination vs oil off their coast???

[Timesink]

The American "patriots" in 1776 were terrorists to the English too. The English need to get out of Ireland and let them govern themselves. It has work for the USA.

They don't want to govern themselves. They want Ireland to take them over. Too bad the Irish government doesn't actually want them.

Nice propaganda, though!

[Benson_Carter]

no, of course not. there are plenty of equally armed murderous thugs on the other side of the equation (some even trained by British SAS) who have no heat on them whatsoever to decomission their arms, which they use to terrorize equal amounts of innocents.

[Timesink]

If you were genuinely concerned about "terrorism" in British-occupied northeast Ireland, you would be posting demands for the British government to crush the UDA, LVF and UFF that they armed and trained and directed for decades.

Careful, your biases are showing.

But, you are a phony.

Oh, ow, I feel so wounded by your rapier-like, witty insults.

[Timesink]

Let's see. The IRA wants Ireland to be self-governed, a free state.

The IRA wants to swap A darn shame the Irish government doesn't actually want this to happen, isn't it? They know many of the IRA are psycopathic killers, and they fully realize that if they did ever get to take over NI, the British loyalist nutbags there would create an IRA of their own and start bombing and killing all over again.

And if the United StateS of America did that 226 years ago, we would still be bowing to the Queen of England

If the soldiers of the Revolutionary War engaged in a campaign of mindless killing of innocent civilians, we probably still would indeed be part of the UK, since every sane person in the colonies would have turned against them.

You want to bleat about your political objectives, fine. But when you attempt to claim that heinous mass murder is fine as long as it's for your own pet project, you will always lose the debate.

[Benson_Carter]

please. it's YOU who are biased.

where is your demand for the disarming of the Red Hand Defenders and the UDA? Or do you support those murderers in their attempt to blockade, taunt, stone, and bomb little girls on their way to school? (their latest tactics)

[Benson_Carter]

BF, will you please school this person on what will really happen under re-unification? they are grossly misinformed.

[Timesink]

Or do you support those murderers in their attempt to blockade, taunt, stone, and bomb little girls on their way to school? (their latest tactics)

I find it disgusting, and I do not understand why the government there is allowing it to go on.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think the Protestants are angels in this mess by any means. I fully believe that the militants on BOTH sides have long long since descended into pure psychosis. There is no winner. There isn't going to be. The only hope is compromise combined with a massive attempt to raise up a generation detatched enough from the generations of hatreds to deal with the issue rationally. Until then, this devolution thing is about the best anyone can hope for.

[45Auto]

The IRA will give up its arms like the ethnic Albanians gave up theirs....Sure, and the sun will rise in the west tomorrow....

[Benson_Carter]

no. you see the nationalist movement being silenced, the subjugation of a people by a foreign army occupying their soil as acceptable.

the only acceptable solution is to realise that Eire is an island of one people. If they can't live together peacefully, with one government as a voice for all people, then those who think they belong to any other society should rightly move to the country where that society is.

[OldFriend]

Peter King, when defending the IRA this past weekend in a radio interview, alluded to this so called breakthrough.

[cahergowan]

While I'm glad this move has been made, I am still quite wary. Now do the other factions of the IRA also decomission their weapons? Like the CIRA etc. Remember, these were the ones responsible for the August 98 Omagh bombing which killed innocent men, women and children, Protestant and Catholic on busy Saturday afternoon.

[kidd]

Yes, my stomach has been turned. (LOL)

I suspect that thinking people in Northern Ireland have come to the realization that once Afganistan is taken care of, that the US/UK coalition will look to the next group that causes them the most trouble. Who else is the UK more concerned about? This small olive branch may go a long way toward moving the IRA to a lower priority.