Ireland, I don't know what your personal Irish agenda is here at Mudcat, but upon your reviewing your contributions here since 06 Oct, I believe you've got one.

The war may or may not be over. No Protestant paramilitaries have put one single weapon beyond use. Not one. The British security forces still control certain so-called "no go" areas, and the British government has just suspended the democratic institutions for the 4th time.

Very little of the above can actually be attributed to the IRA, much less Sinn Fein, but that doesn't stop the British/Irish/American propaganda machines from churning out bullshit reports of how the latest "crisis" in in the peace process is due to IRA intransignece. That has ALWAYS been the reason given for caving in to the Unionists' threats to withdraw from the so-called "democratic institutions".

What the hell is democratic about suspending the governing institutions in what is supposed to be a democratic process here? What is so democratic about not allowing the electorate to be ruled by the people they voted to have rule them?

The GFA is a sham. Four times Trimble has demanded the Brits "do something" and four times the GFA has been thrown out the window by the British government. Not exactly what one could call "confidence building" for anyone except the Unionists.

What we are seeing is that the Unionists and their British government allies never had any intention of allowing democratic reforms to take hold through the political process or by any other peaceful means. The Unionists were never supposed to get something out of the democratic reforms needed to create a just and equitable society in Northern Ireland--they were supposed to give up power to achieve that goal.

Which proves the point that many in the republican community have been saying all along--the Unionists are not interested in power sharing, and their claim that they were interested parties to the GFA has been a total sham. They want to keep power for themselves, as well as keep the republican and nationalist communities on their knees. THAT is what the British government has done with this suspension of the GFA institutions. They can't just keep breaking the fragile trust with the republican and nationalist communities with impunity either.