Re: Suzanne....
> Have you ever BEEN to Ireland? Your statements, whilst mainly
> true, simply DO NOT represent the people of Ireland and how they
> feel.
> It is all very well for you to be thousands of miles away in
> America, with distant distant relatives (3 times removed) in
> Ireland who throw their arms in the air at the injustices of the
> Brits and Ireland, and who probably slime round bars with Noraid
> collecting boxes, but you probably have never even been to
> Northern Ireland to gauge exactly what these people want.
> The Irish people KNOW that if Britain pulls out its peace
> keeping troops, Ireland will descend into mass violence,
> bitterness and ultimately slaughter..... have you seen the
> recent images of the schoolchildren, being terrified on their
> way to school because they are walking in an area they shouldn't
> walk through? Do you think the troops or Britain caused this????
> Your history lesson on Ireland, whilst in parts correct, simply
> isn't relevant now.... just as America's shameful treatment of
> the Indian tribes shouldn't taint how these people are treated
> today. ALL our countries have shameful pasts, if we're honest,
> things that simply aren't justifiable in this day and age.
> We apparently live in a civilised age now, we should have learnt
> from our mistakes.
> Ireland has a VERY small violent percentage who wreak havoc on
> all the decent law abiding people in the country. These decent
> ordinary people are proud to be British and are thankful that we
> have some visibility in their country because they are
> FRIGHTENED of what will happen if we're not there.
> Maybe you should visit Ireland, talk to these people (not the
> faceless, nameless cowards who shake their Noraid tins
> throughout your country to fund their atrocities again st
> innocents - men, women and mainly, so it seems, children) , find
> out how they feel. You'd be shocked at their shame, anger,
> bitterness and hatred toward this small section who will never
> stop tainting their country with the vileness that is terrorism.
well, i believe we've found the thing that links America and Britain together: an unwillingness to share in the responsibility of what happened in the past and its effects on today.
The wars on Afghanistan and Iraq was in the "past". Why not say "oh, those middle easterners should get over it"?
yet, its OK for you to sit there and point the finger and say "look, you silly American's, you reap what you sow" and then say, "well, it's DIFFERENT for us"
The only difference is that it's personal for you. You personally are a target, and that's why you feel safe taking this stance of keeping the status quo of English presence.
"gee, don't they know why they're hated"
I can ask the same of you.
let us reverse the situation. Say that ireland became super strong and decided you needed a taste of what it was like. They invade, take over your buildings, and make you go live in Wales because they don't want that land. Would you, even 100 years later, say, "gee, those Irish are such great people. I'm so glad that I'm living in the coal mines as I would have no idea the pleasure I was missing otherwise".
Then, they sweeten the deal. They say, "we want to be good friends with the french. We're going to let them colonize the Cotswolds in exchange for their cheesemaking technology" or whatever reason you can think of. You are saying, "hey, the French have got their own land and plenty of it! This belongs to me!" Yet, there you are, stuck in the mines having rarebit for supper and starving while the french and Irish with their armies are stealing your food and are living in mansions and getting rich off the resources you have.
They look around and say, "this place looks too...english. Why don't we knock down Big Ben and erect a new Eiffel tower as a symbol of our unity and to show who's in charge?"
That tower has been there for centuries, but they don't care. it's a symbolic statement that the land no longer belongs to the English.
And again, there you are, scrounging for leeks in the rocky terrain and the things that symbolize your history are systematically being torn down and replaced with someone else's.
Even decades after Ireland was able to partially kick out the British in the early 1900's, they obviously didn't feel like that was enough and went onward until they completely became their own country again in 1951. And do you not see why? Or are you still thinking about it in terms of a couple of pipe bombs?
So, when I read things from the British saying "you americans just don't get it" I have mixed emotions. I agree, but then again, it's also staring you people right in the face and you turn a blind eye to it.
From what I've heard on the news these days, the "protestants" are the ones throwing the bombs at catholics. This time, it's not the IRA. How can you sit there and say, "well, it's all the catholics fault and they are such children that we can't leave them alone for two seconds"? You honestly can't.