Somehow South Africa managed to " find itself" for long enough to reach anagreement that was acceptable to all parties. This has not happen in Ireland, who can hardly claim to have suffered to a comparable extent. That this has not happened in N. Ireland in the last few years is not the fault of either the British people or their Gov't (who, for the sheer financial saving, would like to pull out of ireland). Until all parties really consider giving up their guns a satisfactory trade off, they will never have a stable peace. Its a case of " guns before peace." and the political imaturity of the protagonists (and I am avoiding deliberate finger-pointing ) in being unable to accept the inevitability of compromise in any meaningful negotiated solution in any dispute.
Douglas
----- Original Message -----
From: Charlie Stross
To: extropians@extropy.com
Sent: Wednesday, April 26, 2000 5:25 PM
Subject: Re: Northern Ireland (was Re: Nanotech Restrictions)
On Wed, Apr 26, 2000 at 12:08:27PM -0400, Michael S. Lorrey wrote:
>
> As for myself, a Catholic Scottish American whose family got relocated to Nova
> Scotia from the Gordon's Highlands, I've got little or no sympathies for the
> headaches the Protestant British have brought on themselves, while at the same
> time I have no sympathies for the marxist ideology of most IRA members. Frankly
> you deserve each other.
Who is this "you" you're talking about, white man? I'm a Jewish Brit of
Polish descent who lives in Scotland and votes for Scottish independence
at every opportunity.
And if you'd bothered reading up on the field you might have come across
the interesting statistic that something like 85% of the GB population
favours pulling the GB out of NI and letting the buggers kill each
other ... stereotyping people by attributing the foreign policy of their
government to them as personal opinion isn't exactly a good way of figuring
out what's going on anywhere, is it? Or would you like me to blame you
for Janet Reno's actions on the grounds that, being American, you must
logically support her?
-- Charlie
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