more on more on what does win mean

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Denis Russell <D.M.Russell () ncl ac uk>
Date: June 25, 2006 10:04:52 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net, ip () v2 listbox com
Subject: Re: [IP] more on more on what does win mean

At 07:16 -0400 25/6/06, David Farber wrote:
> ...From: Simon Higgs <simon () higgs com>
> Date: June 24, 2006 12:19:17 AM EDT
> To: dave () farber net, HLin () nas edu
> Subject: Re: [IP] what does wi mean
> Reply-To: simon () higgs com
>
> David Farber wrote:
> > Begin forwarded message:
> > From: "Lin, Herb" <HLin () nas edu>
> > Date: June 23, 2006 5:32:44 PM EDT
> > To: dave () farber net, ip () v2 listbox com
> > Subject: RE: [IP] more on Secret U.S. Program Tracks Global Bank
> > Transfers
> > Will someone tell me what it means for us to "win"?
> > Thanks.. Interested parties want to know.
> > herb
>
> As someone who grew up under the constant "threat" of the IRA, this
> is a really easy one.
>
> To "win" against terrorism means that life remains untouched and
> unaffected by any consequence or by-product of a terrorist act.
...

As someone else who lived most of his adult life under the constant  
threat of IRA terrorism, this is an easy one to me too. To win means

1:	To see my government cease to imprison "IRA Terrorists" without  
trial in the notorious "H-block" prisons (though they continue to  
imprison other terrorists without trial in other prisons). (I call  
this bit "losing".

2:	To see people who used to rely on the gun now start to rely on the  
ballot box (faltering though this process undoubtedly is).

3:	To be able to drive around the old battle lines (the Ardoyne, the  
Falls road) without seeing soldiers in armoured vehicles, and to go  
into pubs in downtown Belfast without worrying about being blown up.

4:	To see ordinary decent folk re-building lives and communities,  
though the building of trust will take a generation.

... etc.

This isn't winning against one side or the other, it is winning  
against the mind-set that drives good honest people to want to kill  
each other just because they belong to the other group. And the fight  
isn't actually won and never will be entirely. And it wasn't won by  
guns, though it would have been lost without the use of them by the  
army imperfect though that process undoubtedly was.

        Denis


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