Now is not the time to disarm
A Tangled Web has an off-puttingly ugly choice of font and colours, but it really is a superb resource on the politics of the better part of the Emerald Isle - and indeed of Britain, the Irish Republic and beyond. I've recommended it here before, but when I did, it wasn't a blog I read daily. Since I went back there to see the reaction to the latest bout of disarmament in Ulster (disarmament by Her Majesty's Armed Forces, that is, naturally), it has unfailingly become that.
One thing I haven't seen discussed there or elsewhere is how you can appease one terrorist organisation by dismantling anti-terrorist equipment and operations, while simultaneously trying to fight another. Even if the IRA threat has passed, is ensuring the virtual absence of British troops from protecting Ulster - to avoid offending people whose very taking of offence proves their moral corruption - really a sensible response in these times? If I were responsible for planning the next Al Qaeda attack on British territory, I'd be giving some thought to somewhere in Ulster. Who could stop me?
