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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (37168)	8/12/2002 10:28:25 AM
From: Bilow	Respond to of 281500

Hi Maurice Winn; Re: "Carl, you misunderstand the situation if you mean Northern Ireland; the majority is in favour of continued British citizenship." Britain had to have what is now the Irish Republic torn from their hands by a nasty guerilla war. As far as what happened in Northern Ireland, they cut the boundaries in such a way as to maximize the number of Catholics that would end up in Northern Ireland (voting by region), left a political system that was unfair to Catholics, and the result was most of a century of minor violence. The fact is that Britain simply did not "accept the will" of the population in Ireland. This is normal behavior for nations operating in their backyard, and is entirely mirrored by Pakistan and India fighting over Kashmir, China working over Tibet and Taiwan, The Russians in their various border regions, the US with regard to its frontier Indian tribes, the Spanish and French with regard to the Basques, the Germans with regard to all kinds of stuff, the Japanese back when they still had [insert slang word for male genitals here], the Romans in their heyday, the HRE, the Mayan, Aztec and Inca, etc. In short, having barbecues in your backyard is normal behavior for every nation on this benighted planet. What's somewhat unusual is the release of distant territory without even a match lighting. But it must be noted that Britain was rather weak at the time. When the US decided to breakaway Britain wasn't so easy. In fact, the US efforts also began in the economic sphere rather than militarily. (Places like Australia just didn't have enough of those things that Japan used to have.) -- Carl P.S. And by the way, if I "mean Northern Ireland", I'll write "Northern Ireland", rather than "Ireland". Of course I know the difference.