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Originally Posted by punky
That's what I thought.
The big difference between IRA and Al Qaeda/Hamas/etc, is that IRA didn't want to kill anyone, only cause cause disruption with evacuations?
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And show that they could kill if they wanted to.
It also enabled them to try and shift the blame for the deaths onto the police for not responding in time.
I'm sure BBKing is right though in that a lot of attacks weren't forwarned, just the majority that I remember being told about had coded messages.
I have no idea what their policy was over in Ulster.
I think they knew that if they started slaughtering civilians they would quickly lose support
As for us negotiating with terrorists, try to think of it like this;
The pIRA called a ceasefire, and stuck to it (pretty much, as far as I know) during the negotiations, therefore we were not negotiating with terrorists, but ex-terrorists (put your Yes, Minister head on and it makes sense).
To my knowledge we're not negotiating with the RpIRA (can you have a real provisional?) although I could be wrong as it's been ages since I've seen any reporting on that situation.