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Re: Republicanism still an ...

Russ
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SubjectRe: Republicanism still an offence in England? (wasRe: Queen mother (of
FromRuss
Date2002-04-14 23:53 (2002-04-14 23:53)
Message-ID<20020414175321.20665.00000488@mb-mq.aol.com>
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Newsgroupsalt.fan.tolkien
FollowsDavid Flood
FollowupsJette Goldie (12m) > Russ
David Flood (1h & 52m) > Russ
In article <a9cslv$24uho$1@ID-121201.news.dfncis.de>, "David Flood" <NOSPAMmaoltuile@utvinternet.ie>writes:

David Flood
<boggles>I can direct you to any number of similar statements by the English over the centuries, you know, with regards to Ireland.

The Irish, notably, tended to accept their defeats and stop fighting after being defeated.

And *plenty* of supposedly 'moderate' Unionists in the last decade; even a poster to this ng (MSR) offered it as a serious suggestion, i.e. bombing the Irish Republic.

Comparing the IRA to the Palestinians groups is like comparing apples and oranges. While the IRA has committed terrorist acts, it is far from their modus operandi as it is among Palestinians groups (a notable statistic is that percentage wise, the IRA killed less civilians than the RUC and British Army. You can verify this stastic at the CAIN (Univ. of Ulster) website). Moreover, unlike the Palestinians, among Irish nationalists, IRA attacks that unreasonably caused civilian deaths were largely not supported by the civilian population. A terrorist attack by the IRA (by that I mean at attack that intended civilians deaths) was always followed by condemnation from the larger nationalist community. In fact, while the IRA was 'fighting' the majority of nationalists supported the non-violent SDLP party. That contrasts strongly with the 75+% of Palestinians that support homicode bombings. The examples of the IRA crossing the line are so rare that one can name them almost immediately. On the other hand, Palestinian acts directed against civilians are virtually a daily occurence.

I heard anecdotally the following (typical) example of British double speak. I assume it's from the time of the bombing that ended the first ceasefire. Anyway, in the very same newscast the BBC termed the termed the perpetraters of the IRA bombing as terrorists even though they phoned in the warning and no one was killed. They also reported in the same newscast about a suicide bombing in Israel killing numerous civilians. However, the perpetrators of that act were called militants.

Go figure.

Russ

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Jette Goldie (12m) > Russ
David Flood (1h & 52m) > Russ