This item is untrue. As many people have pointed out already, The UK Can NOT Now Hold People Without Charge For 42 Days.
Isn't it about time Slashdot changed its headline?
Talking of "people who haven't read their history". The troubles in Northern Ireland was not that the "British and Irish were at war".
It was a civil conflict between two sets of people in Northern Ireland. Both sides had lived there for hundreds of years. The British government sent troops in originally to protect the minority population from attacks by Protestant mobs.
The IRA were not freedom fighters representing a Irish majority strugging under British tyranny; they were terrorists purporting to represent a Catholic minority wanting independance from Britain. The British repeatedly tried to mitigate discrimination by the Protestant majority against the Catholic minority, but their efforts were almost always thwarted by local Protestant politicians, who objected to what they saw as favoritism or support for Catholics.
As in Iraq British (read American) troops ended up disliked by both sides they were trying to police.
In Britain we see Iraq going down the road that we ended up in Northern Ireland. Most people here oppose the Iraqi intervention because we have seen how these things go wrong. We have had the equivalent of the Patriot Act in our Prevention of Terrorism act. In recent years a whole series of "Irish terrorists" wrongly convicted under this Act have been subsequently freed under appeal some after tens of years in jail.
I am surprised that a country such as the USA, with such a history of scepticism about central (federal) government, has been so willing to pass such bad law.
Slashdot Mirror
This item is untrue. As many people have pointed out already, The UK Can NOT Now Hold People Without Charge For 42 Days. Isn't it about time Slashdot changed its headline?
Talking of "people who haven't read their history". The troubles in Northern Ireland was not that the "British and Irish were at war".
It was a civil conflict between two sets of people in Northern Ireland. Both sides had lived there for hundreds of years. The British government sent troops in originally to protect the minority population from attacks by Protestant mobs.
The IRA were not freedom fighters representing a Irish majority strugging under British tyranny; they were terrorists purporting to represent a Catholic minority wanting independance from Britain. The British repeatedly tried to mitigate discrimination by the Protestant majority against the Catholic minority, but their efforts were almost always thwarted by local Protestant politicians, who objected to what they saw as favoritism or support for Catholics.
As in Iraq British (read American) troops ended up disliked by both sides they were trying to police.
In Britain we see Iraq going down the road that we ended up in Northern Ireland. Most people here oppose the Iraqi intervention because we have seen how these things go wrong. We have had the equivalent of the Patriot Act in our Prevention of Terrorism act. In recent years a whole series of "Irish terrorists" wrongly convicted under this Act have been subsequently freed under appeal some after tens of years in jail.
I am surprised that a country such as the USA, with such a history of scepticism about central (federal) government, has been so willing to pass such bad law.
Some explanation of this might be helpful for the majority of Slashdotters who aren't in the US. Jeopardy? Ken - Barbies's boyfriend?