Cite?
There is no possibility of keeping political considerations out of this. Terrorism on the scale of the troubles is a political act.
The NI peace process is a delicate balance between the desire for justice and the practicalities of dealing with groups who straddle the terrorist/political line.
We would not be where we are without concessions being made to terrorists designated as “political prisoners”.
Would my instinct be to do things differently? definitely! and it probably would’ve sparked off untold death and misery. I’d make an atrocious politician myself so I choose to swallow my objections and let wiser heads try their best to extract the best outcome from the shittiest of all options.
Seems to be working.
The IRA groups are still around (albeit mostly disarmed)-the US didn’t just ask Al-Qaeda to turn in their weapons.
They certainly should apologize and recompensate the families-much as say the US did with the interment camps.
I misspoke when I said the IRA was treated as apolitical organization.
So you’re in agreement with the general opinion of the thread, then? Why bring the IRA into it? Are you unsatisfied with how the British government handled the IRA?
Yes, they have been let off too easily.
Wrong attempt to imagine a “double standard.”
Neither the IRA nor the numerous TLA groups beginning with “U” are being told to apologize and pay. The only entity being “told,” (by its own agency), to make reparations is the specific government that sent troops in to secure peace that then turned a blind eye and engaged in decades of lies to avoid addressing the fact that its own “peacekeepers” were guilty of murder.
Had anyone ordered the Ulster Defense Association or the numerous similar groups to make reparations while giving the IRA a pass, you would have a point, but in this case you are simply posting silly statements indicative of ignorance.
Yes, absolutely. One of the costs of peace in Northern Ireland is that some murderers have “gotten away” with their crimes. The price is worth paying. It is worth forgoing justice in a few cases in order to prevent innocents from being blown up in continuing terror bombings.
“All rights and all wrongs have long since blown away
for causes are ashes where children lie slain.”
-Stan Rogers
While I agree as regards to the Northern Irish situtaion, I do not agree generally. Terrorists are criminals; common criminals and should be treated. Why should they be treated any differently then your average drug dealer or wife killer*
*Though I believe the PIRA took a narrow view of such people in areas they controlled.
Where it is possible to do so we should, where such an approach makes political progress impossible then, grudgingly, I accept some degree of compromise is necessary.
I’m conflicted and ambiguous and hypocritical on this myself.
I look forward to hearing the Curtis plan for peace in Northern Ireland. The real world is complex. Sometimes it’s better to let bygones be bygones than keep a bloody status quo. I already recommended a book to you to allay your ignorance of the situation in NI but since you didn’t read it then I doubt you’d read it now.
Then I ask you, should the soldiers who murdered those civilians that day pay in jail time for their actions?
I think this is the kind of situation where, without having lived it or having lived with the continuing results of it, it’s very easy to just sit back on a principle. Curtis does rather seem to be in that camp in general, not just in terms of this particular subject.
As you say, there comes a point where you become willing to spend your principles in order to buy respite.
In this matter as well as so many others, Curtis doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Perhaps his parents met at Bob Jones University, which has long had ties to Ian Paisley & family.
The compensation? Well, it can’t really undo what was done. But it might help in the continuing efforts to move forward.
Sorry didn’t have the time. 
Well thinking about it I see that we cannot establish justice here in the interests of peace.
Yes, just like the cops in the Rodney King beating/
How those two acts are comparable is completely beyond me.
Both were abuse of powers by the police/military. Kent State may be more apt
Oddly enough, as a British citizen with family links to the Unionist community, I expect slightly higher levels of behavior from my government and its agents than I do from a murderous terrorist crime syndicate.
And, as has been made clear, the beneficiaries of Bloody Sunday were the Provos. The deaths of innocent protestors (not IRA members) led to the deaths of British soldiers, Ulster policemen, and other civilians.
That’s pretty much what happens every single time. Look at post-apartheid South Africa, former Latin American dictatorships, former Warsaw Pact countries, etc… The guilty ones are pretty much never punished and the victims have to suck it up in order to “buy” peace, civil order and for the changes to occur.
Even in the worst cases, only the higher ups are punished (Nazi era, Rwanda, former Yugoslavia…). You just can’t prosecute and jail 10% of the population.
It’s true that it’s disheartening, though.
Since WHEN?
In other Troubles-related news, Gusty Spence, the loyalist terrorist who committed the first murders of the Troubles, but later became a peacemaker, has died.