Oops! Just a nobody, I meant to also say I was in agreement with the distinctions you made about the IRA. Except for one thing.

The Provos always said they only targeted Unionist and British police, military, and economic targets and never civilians. However, as many of us well know, they did kill quite a few civians in their bombing campaign on the British mainland as "collateral damage" (as our military preferes to refer to innocent civilians).

Now, there are those who would still say they were acting with reason and just cause under the circumstances, and there are those who would still condemn them as terrorists no matter what they do to bring a just peace to Northern Ireland.

But the fact of the matter is, the Provos lost a lot of their supporters when they took to the bombing campaign in Britain, because of the civilian deaths. Does this mean that the IRA's supporters never had the stomach for "real" war--or the resolve to conduct "a different kind of war" as we claim to be doing with the convention and covert war we are now waging in Afghanistan?

I certainly hope so. And I certainly hope that as we see what carnage and suffering is being inflicted upon the innocent civilians of Afghanistan, we too will lose our "resolve" and stomach for this war, no matter how just and right many feel it to be at this time.

Seeking revenge and acting out of rage will always be cause for regret somewhere down the road, even if you are the richest and most powerful nation in the world.