The End Of The IRA?

Slugger O'Toole scores the round against the IRA based on this article in the LA Times. Too many hits below the belt have drawn the following penalty:

The Irish Republican Army, long the law in Short Strand, is finding itself under attack not only by its longtime nemeses, the Protestant Ulster unionists and the British government, but by working-class Catholic families. They say the organization has become a criminal gang, killing and robbing without regard to common decency.

Sinn Fein is feeling a bit exposed as it stands with its boxing trunks around its knees and finds the audience less than impressed with what it sees. One of the results of this, as Tim Blair directs us to an article by Mark Steyn, is Gerry Adams won't be in the White House on St. Patrick's Day. Mr. Steyn tells us who Mr. Adams is and then recounts the story of Robert McCartney:

Adams is usually billed as the "President of Sinn Fein," which in turn is usually billed as the "political wing" of the IRA. This artful form of words is supposed to suggest some kind of distinction between "President" Adams and the murkier fellows who do all the bombing and killing and knee-capping. In fact, as the Irish government recently revealed, "President" Adams is a member of the Provisional IRA's ruling "army council" -- i.e., the fellows who order all the bombing and killing and knee-capping.

So instead of one more chorus of "The Wearing of the Green," it's the wearing out of the welcome for Adams at the White House. In his place, President Bush will welcome the fiancee and five sisters of Robert McCartney. McCartney was a Belfast Catholic and a Sinn Fein supporter, but he made the mistake of getting into an argument with a Provisional IRA big shot in a pub in January. The other "Provos" present grabbed McCartney, beat him with iron sewer rods, slit him open from his neck to his navel, severed his jugular and jumped on his head, causing what was left of it to lose an eye. There were 70 witnesses in the bar but none of them saw a thing.

There isn't any evidence that Gerry Adams ordered the killing of Robert McCartney and no one is claiming that, but Steyn summarizes the problem as follows:

There's a lesson there in the reformability of terrorists. The IRA's first instinct is to kill. If you complain about the killing, they offer to kill the killers. If you complain about the manner of the killing, they offer to kill more tastefully -- "compassionate terrorism,'' as it were. But it's like Monty Python's spam sketch: There's no menu item that doesn't involve killing. You can get it in any color as long as it's blood-red.

Even Ted Kennedy, in a sober moment, finds Gerry Adams undesirable as a dinner guest. Perhaps, as Tim Blair suggests, negotiation is not the way to deal with terrorists.

(As an aside: In the Slugger O'Toole post on Ted Kennedy, one finds the following comment by Pat Mc Lamon:

Shouldn't be too hard on the old soak Henry. After all if he hears the story of how Mc Cartney and the robber were left to die in Market St and how no one phoned an ambulance or tried to get help it may bring back memories of one of the character defining moments of his own life.

Some people seem to have not forgotten Senator Kennedy's past.)