Message #17687

[spitfire78]

Donna, you must have read my mind!  While driving into work this morning, I was thinking along the same lines.  For years, I've heard about IRA terrorist attacks in England.  Now, I may rile some of our U.K. folk, but the following is only my opinion.  I have always felt that Ireland should be left to rule its own country and that England should stay out of it.  Therefore, whenever I heard that the IRA had set off a bomb in London or wherever, I would say "oh those poor people" (and mean it!).  Then in my smug self-righteous world I would think, well if they'd leave Ireland alone, the IRA would leave them alone.  After 9/11 my thinking has changed entirely.  While I still hold the same belief regarding the English/Irish situation, I now realize that the IRA has been going about this entirely the wrong way.  It is one thing to attack a country's military institutions.  It is something completely different to attack innocent civilians.  It's a shame it took something like this to open my eyes.  All of a sudden, I'm thinking, "Wow, what we're going through is what these people have been going through for YEARS."  I wouldn't blame these other countries for just smugly saying "now you know what it feels like."  Speaking for myself, I know that my view of the world has changed entirely.