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Soldiers Leaving Crossmaglen - Holding Heads High


It was funny to watch republicans reach near orgasm over the withdrawal of the army from Crossmaglen following a job well done. Yesterday the last soldiers left the village Possibly the most amusing thing was the placard carried by some of the terrorist supporting rabble. "Intimidation, torture, murder" in capital letters adorned the middle. Ironically, that's exactly why the army were here for so long - to put an end to the IRA's campaign of, you guessed it, intimidation, torture and murder.
Now seems an appropriate time to thank all the soldiers who served here over the decades of the troubles, doing a difficult and often thankless job in even more difficult circumstances. I'm not sure I can imagine what it must be like leaving your family and friends with only the knowledge that you're doing it to protect innocent life to keep you going so thank you.
Follow up:
The IRA/Sinn Fein are trying to spin this as some kind of victory (the end the of "occupation" by "British Crown Forces") but they're deluding themselves. Northern Ireland is still British, the principle of consent is accepted and enshrined in law and the IRA have given up their armed campaign. Not ended, not concluded; given up. The fact that they will not apologise for the deaths (it was still a tactical mistake, not a moral one remember) supports the view that there is no way they'd have abandoned the 'struggle' if they thought they'd any hope of success therefore one can only conclude they've been roundly defeated.
The police no longer need the support of the army and that's good news. We still don't quite have normal policing here as in other areas of the UK, or even Europe, as evidenced by the petrol bomb attack on the police the same day the soldiers were leaving, and Unionists are understandably worried that security 'normalisation' is proceeding prematurely. I'd probably be a little uneasy if I lived in the area myself but truth be told there currently seems little likelihood of a return to the widespread violence that brought the army here in the first place. The police seem to feel that they can cope with the situation on their own now. For that reason I encourage Unionists to be cautiously optimistic over these moves, if not quite celebratory. The police in Finchley don't need regular army support, and we all know the old saying.
