[geeks] Re: [rescue] The war begins....

[David Cantrell]

On Mon, Oct 08, 2001 at 08:31:10AM -0400, Ken Hansen wrote:

> Basic difference - the IRA simply (!) wants Britian out of Ireland, they

Yes, and interestingly, only 26% of Britons want to keep Ulster now.

> have no problem with Britian *existing*. The Taliban want westerners
> *eliminated* - no tolerence.

Not true.  They want a pure form of Islam (by their definitions, of course)
in Islamic countries.

> Also, the IRA wants to *live* without British goverence, the Taliban want to
> *die* in furtherence of their goals

You are confusing the Taliban with the suicidal terrorists.  And in any
case, talking and addressing peoples' concerns *can* prevent terrorist
acts.  By removing the terrorists' popular support, they no longer have
the resources, both in terms of money and recruits, to continue.  They
soon become an irrelevance and if they keep going their own erstwhile
supporters will do them over.

Now there is the small issue of this particular group of terrorists
*allegedly* having lots of dosh already.  The appropriate venue for
handling that is through the courts, the same way as other alleged
terrorists are.  What's that?  They won't extradite him?  Then show them
the oh-so-convincing evidence that is claimed to exist!  According to
the US government, that 'evidence' is too sensitive to be shown to the
government they are expecting to extradite someone, but do you *really*
think that people will just believe it anyway?  Of course not.  Do you
think that the US would extradite alleged terrorists to the UK without
evidence?  Of course not.  So why impose different standards elsewhere?

> Sorry for simplifying the "Irish Problem" - I am *sure* it is much more
> complex than I present...

It is, but that was a reasonable "executive summary" :-)

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

"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands,
 hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -- H. L. Mencken