A terrorist is a terrorist, although there are gradations based on degree of depravity and sheer numbers.
Now that the Irish government has officially fingered Gerry Adams as part of the Irish Republican Army’s seven-member army council command, shouldn’t Americans – especially Irish-Americans — regard Adams as something other than the glib, fundraising spokesman for Sinn Fein, the IRA’s political arm?
While it might seem blasphemous to those who still romanticize the IRA as doing nothing more than fighting the morally good, anti-empire fight for freedom and equality, shouldn’t the Adams’ outing change that once and for all? If vengeance and reprisals – inevitably complemented by the spilling of innocent blood – is still the modus operandi , isn’t that terrorism?
And fundraising, including that done at American universities and sympathetic neighborhood pubs, is still terrorism albeit once-removed. No matter what percentage goes to propaganda and “orphans.” No matter that it’s not aimed at us, for somebody assuredly is in the cruel crosshairs. And chances are, they don’t appreciate the bloody enabling.
In fact, when we are the targets – of Islamic jihadists in our midst — we don’t have qualms about dispensing with political and fundraising euphemisms. We know terrorists can have blood on their hands without picking up a weapon.