"... stick to what people actually say rather than surmise what you think they might say but haven't said...if you are trying to counter their arguments, wait till they have said something that you actually want to challenge."

Well, Sir Kevin (I just knighted you - Order of the Bothersomely Correct), as usual your iron intellectual discipline beats me. Yer right. / I also *do* challenge *some* of "their" express indictments against my country; but I'll leave that for another day, another thread. Perhaps.

I *hope* that the emergent facts will show that SF/IRA is not turning back to Physical Force as doctrine and policy. As you say, we shall see.

"...any 'army', legal or not, is likely to have contingency plans for all kinds of things they have no intention of doing." Indeed. I'm sure ours over here (legal or not) does. You don't wanna know. Neither, I think, do I.