Re: [CONTROVERSIAL]: A Defense of Terrorism

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I have reasonable doubts as to whether
Paul Bradley <paul@fatmans.demon.co.uk> wrote:

> > not! The major reason people can't live together is furnished by
> > politicians who feel they should make it to history books ;-(
> 
> Tims post made a good point, people soon forget the causes of conflict 
> and only see the effects, today, hardly anyone in the UK sees the IRA as 
> an organisation devoted to liberating NI, merely a bunch of thugs. Of 
> course they have brought this on themselves by indiscriminately blowing 
> things up. Talking of which the Queen is visiting Hastings (a town about 
> 5 miles from me) today, I hope the IRA blow her up...

How many Irish nationalists do you know? The ones I know consider the
IRA to be a bunch of thugs. Their attitude towards sympathizers in the
US is similar to the attitude most Israelis have towards the kind of
American wackos who killed Rabin. That's probably too nuanced for you,
so to simplify: I think they're a bunch of thugs. They're just as
thuggish towards "their own" as they are towards the Loyalists. Express
a moderate or humanistic point of view in certain NI neighborhoods and
the IRA thugs will make sure you're censored for good. AS Bill Frantz
pithed a few weeks ago: the problem is not anarchy -- the problem is
too many competing governments in one place. Thuggery isn't the answer
to historical thuggery.

- -rich
 http://www.stanford.edu/~llurch/

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> How many Irish nationalists do you know? The ones I know consider the
> IRA to be a bunch of thugs. Their attitude towards sympathizers in the
> US is similar to the attitude most Israelis have towards the kind of
> American wackos who killed Rabin. That's probably too nuanced for you,
> so to simplify: 

Thanks, I`ll simplify all my answers into words of 2 syllables or less 
for you in future.

> I think they're a bunch of thugs. They're just as
> thuggish towards "their own" as they are towards the Loyalists. Express
> a moderate or humanistic point of view in certain NI neighborhoods and
> the IRA thugs will make sure you're censored for good.

My point exactly, the IRA are criminal scum, as I have said. Of course 
they serve a purpose, but that really isn`t the point.

> AS Bill Frantz
> pithed a few weeks ago: the problem is not anarchy -- the problem is
> too many competing governments in one place. Thuggery isn't the answer
> to historical thuggery.

Thuggery in this vein is certainly not appropriate. I would have no 
problem whatsoever with the IRA if they concentrated entirely on killing 
poloticians, recall that not so many years ago they were less inclined to 
killing civilians (around the Brighton bomb and Airey Neave incident time).
Of course, the IRA have always been censorous thugs, they just happen to 
have taken also to killing innocent people in highly populated areas as well.
IMO, the IRA are terrorists, *not* freedom fighters. 

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