[geeks] Re: [rescue] God bless America

[David Cantrell]

Francisco Javier Mesa-Martinez <lefa at cats.ucsc.edu> wrote:
> On Sat, 15 Sep 2001, rwalkup wrote:
> > [IRA] kill people.  Sometimes the people are URC (cops), sometimes British
> > Army, sometimes British shoppers near a car bomb.

The first two being legitimate targets.

> > And yes, in my idiot youth I was one of those Americans who supported the
> > IRA 

I support their claimed aims.  But I am doubtful whether the pIRA really
has the aims it claims to, and I certainly abhor the way they go about it.
They should stick to military targets - army, police, and government.

And incidentally, many try to confuse Sinn Fein - a political party which
also has the same aims as the pIRA claims to have - with the pIRA.  This
is wrong.  Whilst many Sinn Fein members are also pIRA supporters, that is
not a party matter.  Sinn Fein and the other republican parties tend to
be slightly left-of-centre, although still broadly supportive of capitalism.

> Protestant Unionist are the Protestant response to the mostly Catholic
> IRA.

No.  Unionism is a political movement to try to keep Northern Ireland tied
to Great Britain.  They are overwhelmingly christian protestant, but are
not - just like the republican parties - closed to members of other
religions.  Unionist parties tend to be fairly right-of-centre, and some
are so right-wing they would make Thatcher's teeth curl.

There are also various terrorist groups espousing the same cause.  Their
actions, unlike those of the pIRA, are overwhelmingly directed at civilian
targets amongst the republican population of the province.

>       They are pro-British and want to protect the status Quo of Northern
> Ireland (i.e. as a British Colony) both politically and socially (i.e.
> British political control and Catholic margination).

I fail to see how wanting to protect that status quo can be seen as being
pro-British.  The British people don't want Northern Ireland.

> Even Israel that now tries to present itself as an "innocent" victim of
> terrorism had a very active Jewish terrorist network in the late 40s
> and 50s.

Many would argue that they still do, masquerading as government agencies.

> Well Marxist and Communist social views are in a sense almost identical to
> the original Christian ideals. Like Christianism they, Marxists inspired
> theories, were never implemented correctly. In some sense Jesus was the
> first communist.

"render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's"?

Frankly, christianity seems rather confused on the issue.

> Lighting Path is more a Guerilla movement than a terrorist one.
  ^^^^^^^^
the usual translation is 'Shining'.

Depends who you ask.  To some, they are freedom fighters.  To others they
are terrorists.  Pretty much the same as almost every other liberation/
terrorism movement there has ever been, including:
  the traitors to the Crown who signed the US Declaration of Independence;
  the French resistance under the German occupation;
  the ANC and Nelson Mandela;
  Ben Gurion and the founders of Israel;
  the PLO

-- 
David Cantrell | david at cantrell.org.uk | http://www.cantrell.org.uk/david

             If a job's worth doing, it's worth dieing for