Wednesday, October 04, 2006

...the best political move ever.

I know it's old news, but the IRA (at least publicly) de-militarizing in the wake of 9/11 and 7/7 was a huge step forward.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/07/28/ira.statement/index.html

I'm of almost 100% Irish descent. I've always wondered why England had a presence in North Ireland and I've read a few accounts from both sides. What I came up with is liable to not be popular at all, but I've concluded that England is trying to hold onto the very last area on the earth that is challenging their 19th century empire. So, that should spark outrage in me, no?

Well, if I was an Irish militant, yes, I guess it might. But I'm not. I'm an Irish-American, so I feel their pain, but not first hand. The end of the 19th century (which I feel occurred during WW II, not in 1900) drew a lot of lines. Some agreeable, some not, but drawn all the same. As always, the victors dictated the terms and arrived upon agreements not always agreeable to the vanquished. Since Ireland was 'neutral' during the war, there was no hope of solving the "Irish Problem" one way or the other through conflict with allied help for the English. England drew troops from North Ireland and took volunteers from "independant" Ireland during the war . What a conundrum!

In the end, it turned out to be a huge mess. England was still in posession of Northern Ireland, all of "southern" Ireland resented that and "some" of those resenters turned into 'jihadists' to free northern Ireland. On the flip side of that, Northern Irish consistently voted their 'occupiers' into power. CONUNDRUM!

In the end, it all boiled down to religion, and eventually, the IRA realized that it doesn't matter what one personally believes. They realized that they were earning no friends at all by using the tactics of Islamic militants. In fact, they realized that the more innocent Brits they killed, the less support they had. They moved on to politics and I wholeheartedly support the peaceful transition in North Ireland from British rule to rejoining the Irish nation.

If it gets ugly and protestants start massacring catholics in a bloodletting campaign. I'll bounce right back to "this is why the Brits are here...not to opress, but to put the hammer down on the bullshit."

Peaceful reform is the best way to go when amongst followers of a paceful faith.

To address the link of the IRA de-militarizing...I can only say that perhaps they have finally learned. They don't want the British occupation, but they also do no want to be identified with Islamic terrorists. Smart move. It took them almost 4 years after 9/11, but they finally got the message.

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