> > One thing I would like to know is what are we qualifying as terrorism or "acts of war" no doubt people flying planes into buildings killing thousands of people is horrific and I was as disgusted as the rest of the world. But I would like to know if those declaring war on terrorism is going to include the IRA or the Spanish group ETA, because if not, I think the word hypocritical isn't going to do them justice.
> > Many Rinkies live in Britain and know what the IRA have done and are capable of, and this has gone on for over 30 years, even those who don't live over here can get a general idea by watching the news. Trust me you don't have to live in Ireland or in London to know what can and does happen.
> > Is this action just going to include nations who do not conform to the West sense of belief or are they going to go after every terrorist out there....
>
> Reading the transcript of Bush's address, I noticed that he specified "every terrorist group of global reach" as the target of this campaign. I believe the reason for this is that terrorist groups such as the IRA, who do not have global reach, are not truly under the domain of the international community. As much as I hate to say "it's your problem, deal with it" this seems to be the most diplomatic way to handle such situations. As long as a stable government is in power in a nation beseiged by a localized terrorist group, international intervention is not necessary nor appropriate--unless that government asks for help, which, to my knowledge, has not happened in the situation with the IRA.
>
> That's just my understanding of the situation and the reasoning--if anyone else has any contradictions or supporting information, I would be very interested to read it.
>
> > Dix"interested to see who's on the hit list"ie
>
> Don Monkey

The IRA *do* have global reach - they may only plant bombs in Britain, but they have strong links to FARC in Equador, ETA in Spain, a whole raft of Middle-Eastern organisations, and possibly even Aum Shinko, the group that released nerve gas into the Tokyo subways a few years ago.

All of these groups are part of an international "community", and trade resources and expertise between themselves. An IRA man, trained in Lybia by Spanish terrorists may find himself buying Czech explosives from a terror group in South America to bomb London, or to sell on to other terrorists.

winter"3 Sinn Fein party officials recently arrested leaving FARC-controlled territory with traces of cocaine and Semtex on their clothes. They claimed to be reporters on holiday"mute