Madam, - From out of the shameful carnage of the London bombings came the telling revelation that doctors treating the victims were prompted to resurrect surgical techniques they hadn't used since the IRA bombing campaigns of two decades ago. The Provisional IRA's misdeeds were always destined to live in infamy but somehow this grotesque reminder of their modus operandi also demonstrated its sheer abject futility.
For 30 years after the armed strugglers decided that the road to freedom would be strewn with body parts, the ideological goals for which they claimed to be striving are further away than ever. What do old Provos think about when they examine the present situation? The principle of consent is enshrined in the Belfast Agreement; the Republic has abandoned its territorial claim; the peace process is stalled because Sinn Féin cannot live down its terrorist past; moderate unionism is vanquished; and most galling of all, the moral ascendancy has passed to their old bête noir, Rev Ian Paisley. The self-defeating circularity of that dynamic may be lost on the diehards, but if they believe the decades of torture they inflicted on the people of the North delivered them some kind of victory they are no less deluded than the infantile fools who slaughtered more than 50 innocent people in London.
Strategically speaking, terrorism does not work. Worse, it brutalises the perpetrators as much as the victims. Even the Palestinians, who have a cast iron prima facie case for statehood, have dissipated the morality of their claim by insisting that a necessary condition for its advancement is nothing less than the destruction of the state of Israel. The balance of world sympathy would tilt towards the Palestinians were it not for the relentless footage of paramedics clearing body parts from shopping malls and street cafés in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
The time for representing terrorism as the anguished cry of the dispossessed has passed. The fact is that terrorism is a moral choice with consequences for perpetrators as well as victims. We can argue about the way in which the "War on Terror" is conducted, but the next time we board a London tube train, who among us will reflect that it was all some alarmist conspiracy theory? - Yours, etc,
BERT WRIGHT,
Hillside,
Dalkey,
Co Dublin.
Madam, - Mark Hennessy's timely analysis of the UK identity card proposal and its likely impact on Ireland contains some useful background on the intentions of Bertie Ahern's Government (The Irish Times, July 13th). Last week it dripped out information about the proposed "national swipe card" while widespread revulsion at the London bombings remained very raw.
Many people, however, will take issue with the proponents of an ID scheme, not least in their assertions about terrorism. While politicians supportive of the British scheme did for a time herald the card as a panacea for the anxieties of middle England, they have long since lost the argument that ID cards will counter terrorism.
To the credit of Tony Blair's cabinet, British ministers were quick to point out that ID cards would have done nothing to prevent the London bombings. Indeed, they were carried out by British nationals who carried identity papers precisely because they wanted to promote themselves as martyrs for their murderous cause. An ID card would merely have been a further document with which the bombers could reveal their identities.
Admittedly, focus groups and opinion polls may record a temporary increase in public support for ID cards, but it would be wrong to assume that politicians will allow the bombings to give the scheme "renewed impetus".
It is also mistaken to claim that iris scanning is regarded as the "most accurate way currently of identifying humans". That position is occupied by DNA testing. The British government did explore using this biometric in ID cards, but deemed it politically unacceptable. - Yours, etc,
EOGHAN WILLIAMS,
Hubert Grove,
London SW9.