Bloggers on the IRA

Thanks to Richard Delevan, a Yank living in Ireland, a round up of bloggers on the Sinn Fein/McCartney murder.

Some choice quotes:

Belmont Club ~ I think the IRA will be a ball in the side pocket. As the US acquires a generic antiterrorist capability, such as for example the ability to track laundered funds through Bulgarian-based banks the type of which the IRA wanted to buy, they incidentally acquire options they didn't have before. Moreover, the future battleground of radical Islamism may in a few years be Europe as much as the Middle East. In that respect all cats will be grey in the dark.

Obsidian Wings ~ On one hand, [the IRA's] cluelessness is a good thing. Any mistakes that accelerate their demise should be encouraged. On the other hand, this suggests the organization, which has been more or less reduced to a pitiful collection of petty criminals, is potentially very dangerous in the way a cornered rat becomes dangerous, and the McCartney sisters, as brave as they are, should be careful.

Crooked Timber ~ For the first time in my memory, there’s a serious internal challenge to the IRA’s ability to control its own community, and to the frequently brutal actions of its hard men. Getting rid of them would be a considerable step forward for democratic politics in the North.