So Much for Síocháin (peace)

An Irish “peace activist” made some very war-like statements against President Bush:

Irish peace activist at Dallas event gets standing ovation

12:30 PM CDT on Friday, July 13, 2007

By JAMES HOHMANN / The Dallas Morning News

Nobel Peace Prize winner Betty Williams apologized Thursday for saying she could kill President Bush, remarks that drew scorn from Bush loyalists and shook up the International Women’s Peace Conference in Dallas. “My feelings now and again get way ahead of me,” Ms. Williams said. “I couldn’t kill anybody, but I must confess that I’m extremely angry with the Bush administration and what they have done. To say that was wrong.”

Conference organizers immediately sought to distance themselves from her speech Wednesday night, but it brought a swift rejoinder from the White House, dominated some radio talk shows and drew a flurry of hateful e-mails to attendees. Questioned about her speech Thursday morning, Ms. Williams initially denied making the comment but reversed course after organizers confirmed the quote. In a speech before 1,000 people Wednesday, Ms. Williams said that violence is a choice and the push for peace takes hard work and commitment.

Our enemies, al Qaeda in particular, chose violence as a way to push their agenda. The “give peace a chance” crap isn’t going to affect a rabid culture buried in a 7th Century screed full of misogyny and death to the ‘infidel’, i.e. anyone not Muslim.

Right now, I could kill George Bush,” she said. “No, I don’t mean that. How could you nonviolently kill somebody? I would love to be able to do that.” As she made her point, she chuckled and some members of the audience laughed. Ms. Williams, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976 for creating a group that helped start peace talks in Northern Ireland, also said that Mr. Bush should be impeached. About half the audience responded to that with a standing ovation.

The speech, given in the city that will host Mr. Bush’s presidential library, caused a stir on talk radio and Internet sites, and among those attending the conference. “Threatening the president of the United States is a crime,” conservative talk show host Mike Gallagher said on his nationally syndicated program, which airs in Dallas. “Many of us are resentful at a so-called Nobel Peace Prize laureate having the audacity to threaten the life of our commander in chief.”

Several women at the conference said they admired Ms. Williams for having the courage to say what she thought – even if unpopular. “It was an incredible act of bravery to make that statement in Texas,” said Lucinda Marshall of Louisville, Ky., who added that the anti-Bush rhetoric appealed to her. “When you have a president that’s consistently breaking the law, you do not have a democracy. You have a dictatorship.”

I would love to smack Williams upside the head, but I can’t think of a “non violent” way to do it. 

If Lucinda wants to equate Presidential law-breaking with ‘dictatorship’ she should have been as busy as a one-legged woman in an ass kicking contest during Clinton’s eight year crime spree.  She’s another example of why some people should get a one-way ticket out of the country to a real dictatorship. 

White House spokesman Blair Jones called Ms. Williams’ comments “surprisingly hostile rhetoric coming from someone who has been recognized for promoting peace.” It wasn’t the first time Ms. Williams has spoken critically of Mr. Bush. Last July, she made an almost identical comment about wanting to “kill George Bush” to a group of schoolchildren in Brisbane, Australia. She said her point was that it is hard to be nonviolent when there are so many atrocities in the world. Ms. Williams said Thursday that the focus on her comments about Mr. Bush was a distraction from her more important message about peace.

Yeah, it’s so hard for the ones commiting atrocities not to be so violent. Somehow that ‘message of peace’ got lost in translation.

I’m just really passionate about my work. Sometimes it’s ‘open mouth, insert foot,’ ” she said. “I’ll spend the rest of the day saying I’m sorry to everybody.”

Care for some salt with that ‘filet of sole’?

Conference chairwoman Carol Donovan stressed Thursday that the conference is nonpartisan and that Ms. Williams’ views are her own. “The remarks were spoken from her heart and were based on her own concern and opinions,” she said. “With over 1,000 delegates, you can imagine the range of opinions is very wide.”

……Nancy Sonntag, a Dallas psychotherapist who has worked with Iraq war veterans, said she is not a Bush supporter but called Ms. Williams’ comments “totally inappropriate.” “I was a little disappointed in her response,” Ms. Sonntag said, referring to the conference’s overarching question of how to achieve peace. “I don’t think that’s the solution I was looking for. There are so many other problems.”

A little dissapointed?

Beth Weems Pirtle of Farmers Branch, a past state president of the United Nations Association and a volunteer at the conference, described herself as a friend and longtime supporter of Mr. Bush’s, but she said that she has become increasingly opposed to the administration. “Betty Williams was right on target in a lot of what she said,” Ms. Pirtle said. “On Sept. 11, he had the world at his feet. He dropped the ball. He let the neocons around him take advantage of him.”

How pray tell, have the neocons taken advantage of a man who sticks by his principles on the GWOT, even if we think he’s not being ruthless enough, or who won’t budge on illegal immigration, even though we think he’s not being tough enough?

Conference organizers reported that a Dallas police detective was working with hotel security to review about 40 hateful e-mails received in response to Ms. Williams’ speech. They wouldn’t say whether anyone was threatened. Assistant Police Chief Ron Waldrop said police presence at the Adam’s Mark Hotel and Conference Center was not increased as a result of the speech. “We have people that work with protesters and monitor controversial events,” he said. “We do that on a routine basis.” Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren in Washington declined to comment, but a Dallas agent said Ms. Williams had not been questioned and there were no plans to do so. And Ms. Williams said she did not fear for her safety. “If I would have been concerned about my safety,” she said, “I wouldn’t have started the peace movement in Northern Ireland.”

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/nation/stories/DN-peace_12nat.ART.State.Edition1.43b8067.html

They’re going to review the ‘hateful’ emails to this shrill little banshee, but she gets a free pass for her thinly-veiled threat?  And to think she started the ‘peace movement’ in Northern Ireland.  I wonder who she threatened with a ‘non violent’ death? The IRA? The Ulster Loyalists?

The negotiated peace in Northern Ireland has a lot of dissention bubbling just under the surface.  The Provisional IRA  ostensibly ‘decommissoned’ their weapons in accordance with the 1998 Belfast Agreement, but the Loyalists remain skeptical and many have not relinquished any of their cache. 

There’s still a crisis of identity:

In general, Protestants in Northern Ireland see themselves primarily as being British citizens, while Catholics regard themselves primarily as being Irish citizens. Several studies and surveys performed between 1971 and 2006 show this.This does not however, account for the complex identities within Northern Ireland, given that many of the population regard themselves as “Ulster” or “Northern Irish”, either primarily, or as a secondary identity. In addition, many regard themselves as both British and Irish.

Not everyone in Northern Ireland regards themselves as being Irish, particularly not Protestants. A 1999 survey showed that 51% of Protestants felt “Not at all Irish” and 41% only “weakly Irish”

And many divisions over national colors:

Today, Northern Ireland comprises a diverse patchwork of communities, whose national loyalties are represented in some areas by flags flown from lamp posts. The Union Flag and former governmental Flag of Northern Ireland therefore appear in some loyalist areas, with Irish national flag the tricolour, appearing in some republican areas.

Even kerbstones in some areas are painted red-white-blue or green-white-orange, depending on whether local people express unionist/loyalist or nationalist/republican sympathies. The only official flag is the Union Flag.

The former Northern Ireland Flag (also known as the Ulster Banner or ‘Red Hand Flag’) was based on the arms of the former Parliament of Northern Ireland and was used by the Government of Northern Ireland and its agencies between 1953 and 1972. The Ulster Banner has not been used by the government since the abolition of the Parliament of Northern Ireland under the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973. It remains, however used uniquely to represent Northern Ireland in certain sporting events. The arms from which the Ulster Banner derives were themselves based on the Flag of Ulster.

The Union Flag and the Ulster Banner are typically only used by Unionists. Nationalists generally eschew symbols which uniquely represent Northern Ireland; some instead use the Flag of Ireland Irish Tricolour, particularly at sporting events. Many people, however, prefer to avoid flags altogether because of their divisive nature.

Paramilitary groups on both sides have also developed their own flags. Some unionists also occasionally use the flags of secular and religious organisations to which they belong. Some groups, including the Irish Rugby Football Union and the Church of Ireland have used the Flag of St. Patrick as a symbol of Ireland which lacks nationalist or unionist connotations. However, it is felt by some to be a loyalist flag, as it was used to represent Ireland when the whole island was part of the UK and is used by some British regiments.

Foreign flags are also found, such as the Palestinian flags in some Nationalist areas and Israeli flags in some Unionist areas, which represent general comparisons made by both sides with conflicts in the wider world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Ireland”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Ireland

As a result of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, a new coalition government was formed on Dec. 2, 1999, with the British government formally transferring governing power to the Northern Irish parliament. David Trimble, Protestant leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and winner of the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize, became first minister. The government has been suspended four times since then; it has remained suspended since Oct. 14, 2002. http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0108101.html”>http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0108101.html

That’s because ‘peace’ between the religious political factions is tenuous at best. Sinn Fein refuses to disarm its military wing, the IRA. Ulster Loyalists still have weapons secreted away. As of this date, there’s no indication of a willingness of all sides to share power in the government. An insight to the divided country that is Ireland can be found in the debates on the Wikipedia Northern Ireland talk page:

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Nothern_Ireland#United_.28sic.29_Ireland

From what I’ve read, Williams has some ‘peace making’ to catch up on in her own country. Some of my ancestors came from Ireland, and I hope one day to visit the Emerald Isle.

But as long as it’s inhabited by anti-American moonbats, I won’t be going anytime soon.