Madam, – During the recent conflict in the Middle East the opinion was again regularly aired that the cycle of bloodshed could end only if Israel negotiated with, and made concessions to, its enemies.
Many Irish people offering their opinion on the violence there used the ending of the Troubles in the North as evidence of this conventional wisdom.
However the recent killings in the North, which are entirely senseless to any right-thinking human being, show that in all such conflicts there is always a rump of dangerous fanatics for whom any tactic is legitimate and any atrocity justifiable in their own, warped, world view.
While conflicts of terror can rarely be resolved without negotiation, it must be recognised that some terrorists just have no interest in negotiation and, indeed, view heartfelt public disgust at their crimes with indifference or contempt.
It is, therefore, incumbent on the State to use every weapon at its disposal to suppress these fanatics and for the citizens of the State to be unequivocal in their support of this endeavour.
Anything less will doom this country to yet more years of instability and pointless loss of life. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – The people who killed two soldiers and a policeman and injured civilians in the North are not dissident Republicans, but dissident human beings.
What a pity that not everyone is blessed with independent powers of reasoning, the ability to acknowledge and embrace a bigger picture, and the capacity to appreciate how and why the greater good might be served.
Their deeds are their only raison d’être, because they don’t and can’t fit into the norms of functioning society. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Vincent Browne has clearly lost the run of himself (“Killings a severe challenge to our pieties”, Opinion, March 11th). It is ridiculous to argue that it is hypocritical to condemn the recent IRA killings if you supported the Lisbon Treaty, the use of Shannon for US military transit, or the Iraq war.
This is like saying it is hypocritical to condemn the mass terrorism of 9/11 and 7/7 and the Madrid and Bali bombings – or, for that matter, the hundreds of acts of suicide terrorism that have killed thousands of Iraqi civilians, if you don’t agree with Mr Browne’s position on Iraq, Shannon and Lisbon.
There is only word to describe his posture: arrogant. – Yours, etc,