George Bush ended his week in Europe today with a visit to good old Beal Feirste, where he hailed NI as a shining example of conflict resolution across the world.
What he apparantly forgot was that many of the world's conflicts stem from the USA's involvement.
As well as paying a visit to us modest people in the colony, Georgie boy also spent some time at number 10 with Mr Brown. It was there that he urged the UK to deploy MORE troops to Afghanistan. What a fantastic idea Mr President. How typically American as well. When things begin to go wrong, send in MORE FIRE POWER. That's sure to solve the problem.
What Mr Bush and Mr Brown don't seem to realise is just how much of a mess they've made of the whole Iraqi situation. Yes, undoubtedly Sadam Heussein was a bad guy, but at least he was an Iraqi administering Iraqi government. What the people in Iraq are protesting against is the idea of a western model of government being enforced with the might of the coalition forces. In other words, a foreign involvement in domestic politics.
It's like Vietnam all over again, except this time they should know better.
Sadam needed removed from power, no doubt about it. But this needed to be done by Iraqis themselves, not because the USA with Britian following behind decreed it should be so. Let's not forget that it was the US government who helped arm Sadam himself all those years ago, as they had done with the Taliban in Afghanistan as well. In the mean time, more people from the north of Ireland are put in danger on the front line in a dubious attempt to win by sheer overwhelming numbers.
Thanks again Mr Bush for your kind words regarding the northern example of a working peace process to the rest of the world. Perhaps if your government stopped creating additional problems to those which naturally exist, not as many would have to look to us at all.
4 comments:
Yeah I agree with you. Iraq should go down in history as Vietnam v2.0. As a United Irelander only by majority consent I have to say that Northern Ireland is not finished, as Bush so happily claims. As the Protestant population enters into decline against the growing Catholic population we are headed for unhappy times. And as a Protestant I am not looking forward to that.
It seems one of us has forgotten about the inquisitions, the persecution and the overwhelming unwillingness of Catholicism to co-exist with anti-papal Protestantism.
Hi Ryan.
With all dure respect, I find it difficult to see your point regarding the Inquisition and the Protestant-Catholic interreligious dialogue.
Personally, I don't think religion really has any part to play in the Northern Ireland situation, except for the popular perception of it. Religious faith is blind to national sentiment. I am an advocate of a united Ireland, independant from British rule simply because I regard partition as wrong and my own national identity as Irish rather than British.
Religion matters little other than a handy label to help exploit differences and prolong infighting, keeping us from looking at and discussing the real issues at had.
As for the Catholic population growing, I see no reason why this should be of any concern either. We're not going to go back to Inquisition times. We simply don't live in that type of society any more. And look at the history of the treatment of Catholics in this so called "protestant" state and you'll see a legacy just as bloody as anything the inquisition had to offer.
It is true that religion today in Northern Ireland is only a propaganda issue and a recruitment bid by paramilitaries however the situation in Northern Ireland was built upon religious intolerance and unwillingness to co-exist.
As good as the nationalist community is at white-washing history the unionist community will never forget the historical bloodshed that encompasses them today.
As a neutral democrat i.e. the people decide whether there should be a united Irish state, I have to say that whether we like it or not one side of the community is haunted by memories of a massacre, the likes of which have never been seen, and they are constantly being reminded of this.
It doesn't help that the other side is ignoring these events.
And speaking of religion in NI I have to point out that the very reason Ireland is under British control to this day is because of a bill called Laudabiliter, put in place by Pope Adrian IV. Therefore it is ironic that those who call themselves Roman Catholics fight to rid their land of something that their leader brought upon them.
Ryan.
You're missing a fundamental issue. To say that one side is more haunted than another ignores swathes of history. Both sides have done horrible evil things to each other, all of which are without excuse. Its highly counter productive to keep trawling through those issues of the past, bacause behind every accusation there is another counter one ready and waiting.
Again it is not just Catholics who want to end the union with Britain. I for one want to see a united Ireland, but am Protestant. There were Protestants who fought during the Easter Rising. There were Republican contingents at a huge commemoration of Wolfe Tone from the Shankil Road in Belfast. Moreover, the first people to fully advocate a total seperate, independent soverign republic, the United Irishmen of the 1800's were all Protestant by religion. William Drennan, Henry Joy McCracken, even Wolfe Tone himself, were all Presbyterians.
To continue to reduce the problem to a religious divide completely misses the point, and is in fact why NI is as messed up as it is at the moment
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