The Political Spectrum

In our fight against terrorism, it seems we have lost sight of a terrorist organization that has been in operation for several decades: the IRA. Recent developments in Britain have reminded us just how dangerous and lethal this outfit remains, and it seems the time has arrived to clamp down on their activities.

The murder case of Robert McCartney has garnered a lot of press recently. It highlights the continued savagery of the IRA, as well as its misguided sense of justice. In a bizarre turn of events, IRA agents allegedly offered to shoot the murderers of Mr. McCartney.

These latest developments have invited the scorn of many Britons, evidenced here, here, here, and here. Particularly insightful is the latter article, an editorial in the Times of London. As it concludes:

Mr Adams, in particular, needs to switch to the short game if he and his party are to have any credibility as actors in the democratic realm and partners in any revived peace process. He must make some dramatic initiatives to restore confidence among nationalists as well as Unionists. They include being willing to swallow the humiliation of the IRA figures linked to Mr McCartney’s murder being placed on trial, acknowledging the PSNI as the sole legitimate policing body in Ulster and ensuring that the IRA orders its “volunteers” to cease all criminality, a pro-cess to be assessed by the International Monitoring Commission. Mr Adams might retort that he has strived mightily for the peace process and deserves credit. But others have also made huge sacrifices and sense that they have been betrayed by republican leaders. Mr Adams’s apologists claim that the IRA would split if there were an effort to wind it down. Yet there is already a far more important split evident: between the IRA and the ideals and values of everyone else in Ulster.

Pardon me for a little hyperbole, but am I the only one who sees Gerry Adams as the Irish equivalent of Yassir Arafat? On the one hand, he presents himself as a political figure attempting to quell violence, while on the other hand he winks at the violence perpetuated by the organization he is associated with.

It is hard to believe that a nominally "Catholic" organization can retain much sympathy as it continues to kill random targets and use violence as a means of achieving its political goals. Even more galling is that the British government not only refuses crack down on the IRA, it makes concessions that further legitimize the group.

At least the United States seems to have gotten the message. As this Telegraph Leader from yesterday indicates, President Bush has invited McCartney's sisters to participate in St. Patrick's Day festivities at the White House next week. On top of that, Sinn Finn leaders have been "left of the guest list for the first time in ten years." The Leader continues:

Mr Bush's splendid gesture sends an unmistakable signal to the world that the White House has woken up to the true nature of Sinn Fein. It also marks a turning point in the long love affair between Irish America and the republican movement in Northern Ireland. For some Americans, the destruction of the World Trade Centre brought the moment of realisation that no terrorists deserved support. For others, the turning point came with the news that IRA killers had been passing on their terrorist expertise to guerrilla groups in Colombia. Others again lost all sympathy with republicans after the Northern Bank raid. Still more have been moved by the courage of the McCartney sisters in standing up to the IRA.

Everywhere, the realisation is spreading that Sinn Fein - and the IRA's refusal to disarm - is the chief obstacle to the lasting peace that all democrats want for Ireland. In Dublin, in nationalist Ulster and now in the White House, too, there is no longer a willingness to give Sinn Fein the benefit of the doubt in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Even Gerry Adams himself, who has urged Mr McCartney's killers to give themselves up, has come to see that he cannot go on blathering about peace and justice while continuing to stand in their way. Only in Downing Street, where Tony Blair's single public pronouncement on Ireland has been an apology to the Guildford Four, does the fantasy seem to survive that Sinn Fein genuinely wants a just settlement.

It is disappointing that a reliable ally in our war on terrorism would be so lax when dealing with the terrorists on their own doorstep. Lest we think this is merely some internal British squabble, I think that if Britain continues to play nice with Sinn Fein and the IRA it will do much to discredit - at the very least - their own participation in the greater war on terror. In particular, their own designs to severely curtail civil liberties under the broad tent of domestic terrorism seems hypocrtical when they allow men like Gerry Adams to continue to parade around and make a mockery of the Britsh justice system. If the Brits suddenly got tough with their own neighborhood terrorists, on the other hand, it might send a signal to more distant terrorists that they mean business, and that they are willing to kick some proverbial ass.

At any rate, we will soon learn how serious Britain is about fighting terrorism.