The suggestion that the group run by Lord Eames and Denis Bradley to look at how best to deal with "the troubles" might recommend the government officially declare that the various murder campaigns constituted a war is a risible attempt to allow the Sinn Fein to justify their crimes.

Yes they were crimes. There was no war. There was a concerted effort by criminal gangs to disrupt law and order and force their will on the population by terrorising them into submission. No amount of retrospective equivocation will ever change that.

It may be well-intentioned but this will not encourage anyone, least of all high-ranking members of Sinn Fein (who have the most to lose) to admit what they have done. All it will end up doing is vindicating their attempts to rewrite history to suit their own narrow sectarian objectives.

"Other mechanisms can be created to encourage paramilitaries to come forward without granting their wish for a rewrite of history."
Stephen Farry MLA, Alliance

The IRA and the alphabet soup of miscellaneous paramilitaries had no recognisable rules of engagement, they did not adhere to the Geneva Conventions, they did not identify themselves as combatants by dressing in military uniforms, instead hiding amongst the law-abiding civilian population, they did not look after prisoners of war (preferring to torture and execute them). Worst of all they targeted civilians (and then lied about it).

Sadly it looks like just another example of the political classes seeking to sacrifice common sense, majority opinion and pure, simple, truth on the altar of political expediency; all in the name of The Process.