It’s good to see that Ted Kennedy kind of gets it (via CNN):
U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy has called off talks with Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams set for St. Patrick’s Day.
The
decision to scrap Thursday’s meeting added to mounting pressure on the
Irish republican leadership following the alleged involvement of the
Irish Republican Army in the killing of a Roman Catholic man in
Northern Ireland.It is the first time since Northern Ireland’s 1998 Good Friday peace
accord that Kennedy, a Democratic Irish-American senator from
Massachusetts, has refused to meet Adams on St. Patrick’s Day.
President Bush has already said he will not meet with Adams. Good that Kennedy is not meeting with Adams, either. However:
In a statement, Kennedy spokeswoman Melissa Wagoner cited "the IRA’s
ongoing criminal activity and contempt for the rule of law" as the
reason for Kennedy’s decision."Sinn Fein cannot be a fully
democratic party with the IRA albatross around its neck," The
Associated Press quoted her as saying. "The time for decisive and final
action is long overdue."
First, Kennedy should have been making the statement himself. on something like this, not a spokesperson. Second, calling the activities of the IRA "criminal activity" shows that Kennedy just doesn’t get the War on Terror. The IRA are terrorists. Yes, there actions are criminal. But you do not treat terrorists like criminals. Kennedy is one of the Dem Senators that considers the WOT a police action. It is not. And then there is Senator Peter King, who has a long standing and deep pockets support of the IRA, again, a terrorist organization.
One of Sinn Fein’s top supporters in the U.S. Congress, New York
Republican Sen. Peter King, also has called on the IRA to disband.King said the IRA had made a series of poor decisions that had sparked anger in Irish-American circles.
He
said it was now standing in the way of a powersharing deal between Sinn
Fein and Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists and that Americans were
finding it "hard to see what the justification is for the continued
existence of the IRA."
Poor decisions? Not quite how I would describe a group that kills and murders, uses bombs to kill civilians, etc.
Sinn Fein and Gerry Adams
As we come up on Saint Patrick’s day this Thursday, the conflict in Northern Ireland is back in the news, however indirectly. President Bush has decided to shun Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, in the wake of the murder of Robert McCartney outsid…