Posted on 02/16/2002 3:56:05 PM PST by jla
A VERY remarkable article has appeared in this week's An Phoblacht/Republican News. The article is in Irish and, perhaps for that reason, it seems to have attracted less attention than it deserves. The article is headed Bush as Smacht - 'Bush out of control'- I shall translate the first three sentences which give an idea of the tenor of the whole piece "We already know that George W Bush is out of his mind, and that he is inclined to make difficulties worse instead of solving them. It seems likely that the Bush authority wants to keep the whole world under control, with the biggest bombs he has. They would prefer to use violence rather than to solve political difficulties."
Now it happens that this was the general tone and tenor of the editorial comment of Sinn Fein/Republican News in the immediate aftermath of the bombings by Islamic extremists of targets in the eastern United States on 11 September last. The editorial suggested that the bombing was justified by various atrocities which had been perpetrated allegedly by the United States in the Middle East and elsewhere. An Phoblacht/Republican News did not however maintain the line it had originally championed. In its immediately subsequent issue it carried an official statement on behalf of Sinn Fein, which did not contain a word of criticism of the United States government, and even allowed that in attacking terrorist targets in Afghanistan, it was exercising its right of self-defence.
One can see why Sinn Fein felt constrained to adopt this line. Continued access to the United States is a high-priority interest of theirs. They need to rally their supporters there, many of whom, after September 11, had been showing a strong tendency to desert. And they want to appear in the guise of international statesmen. By far the theatre of choice for appearances in that role is Washington DC. So Sinn Fein needed to mind their hands and they did so promptly and effectively. And the position they took up in the week after September 11, overruling the original position of Sinn Fein-IRA, is one they have maintained up to now. Up to, that is the publication of Bush as Smacht in this week's Sinn Fein/Republican News. One has to wonder why the apparent breach with a long well-established policy adopted for solid reasons of self-interest? One can only guess about the reasons. Have the editors of Sinn Fein/Republican News been chafing at the restraints imposed on them by their political masters? And did they reckon that they could get away with a major breach of those restraints, provided it were carried out in the decent obscurity secured by expression in the First Official language?
I think that that was probably what they did calculate, and it is mainly to frustrate that expectation that I am writing this article. I want to make sure, in particular that the American Government know what has just been published in the official organ of Sinn Fein-IRA. I think it likely that their Embassy does not have anyone on their staff who can read Irish. Even if they had not, there could have been an alert member of their staff who spotted the article, running under a large portrait of George Bush, and then commissioned a translation, and reported on it to Washington. But it is also possible that Embassy officials, knowing the more-or-less kosher content of the bulk of the paper, exclusively in the English language, did not bother with the Irish-language bit, which they might assume to be consonant with the stuff they could themselves read. That assumption would be very wrong indeed. So I am writing this article to ring alarm-bells in Washington, should it prove that alarm-bells are necessary. I would assume that if the Bush as Smacht piece fails to impinge on an English-speaking public, the Sinn Fein leadership will feel no need to correct it. If it reaches only their own followers in Ireland, who will like it very much, then it will serve their interests. But once it surfaces, visibly to readers in America, they will feel the need to disown it, and disown it they will, just as they implicitly disowned Sinn Fein/Republican News original editorial, justifying the September bombings.
My second purpose, in writing this article, is to warn against the acceptance of the denials. It is the original articles, expressing the gut-feelings of the Republican Movement towards the American establishment, seen as supportive of Britain, that have to be relied on. Such apparently 'pro-American' statements as Sinn Fein leaders feel constrained to make are exclusively the fruit of cold calculation. It has just been reported that President Bush will be coming to Ireland pretty soon. It seems that he will be paying 'thank-you' visits to Britain and Ireland in the summer. He will be thanking the Irish Government for its messages of sympathy following the September bombings. He will be thanking the British for something rather more solid: military support for the Americans in the fighting in Afghanistan. Bush's impending visit is something of which our Government will have to take political account. It is announced at an awkward time for our Government. Bertie Ahern knows that, if the political arithmetic is right, following the next election, it may be in his interest to do a deal with Sinn Fein, winning their political support through the immediate release of the murderers of Garda McCabe. But Bertie also knows that if he does form a Government, dependent on Sinn Fein, while Sinn Fein's masters the IRA retain all the weapons they need, he will strain relations with the United States almost to breaking point.
Up to now, the United States have been very patient with Fianna Fail's appeasement of Sinn Fein, partly because that appeasement has recently seemed to diminish, almost to vanishing point. But if Fianna Fail were to form a government dependent on Sinn Fein, relations between the United States and Ireland would be seriously damaged. And strained relations with the greatest power on earth, is not a prospect which any government can afford to contemplate with complacency. So Bertie can only hope that, following the general election, the arithmetic will not be right for the formation of a Fianna Fail-Sinn Fein government.
Just another terrorist group?
You can well support Irelands fight for freedom, but not at the expense of your soul.
I agree wholeheartedly.
How much more free would they be getting the six co.'s back if Sinn Fein were the prevailing party?
Come to think of it, it'd be a few steps back...the only direction Marxism ever takes.
I guess I need a special font loaded. The and don't seem to belong.
If I can figure it out, I'll print it for my wife to translate. (She was a teacher in Ireland and thus had to pass the tests in Irish)
Sorry, I can't be of more help. Tá brón mór orm! :-(
Don't forget to throw the PUP and the red Hand defenders et al into the equation.
You mean 'wingdings'?
Or do Irish O.S.'s have a 'dingbat' font? *L*
...continued mopping up after the Clinon/Albright profound boondoggles.
Not much regard for them, either, but at least they are not out cavorting world-wide with various Anti-American communist, narco and other terrorists ....
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