think some more.

Submitted by Tony (United Kingdom), Jun 18, 2007 at 11:46

I Would like to say I have never heard such ...comparison in my life, but unfortunately I all too often have.

BOBBY SANDS:-

Bobby Sands was arrested after carrying out a bombing. In order to carry out that bombing he and his companions entered the building and emptied it of people so that there would be no casualties, they then set the bomb and fled. It was part of an economic bombing campaign to 'bomb the enemy to the negotiating table'. (Technically though he was sentenced for being in a car with several other people and one gun.

Bobby Sands then committed suicide through hunger strike years later. He did this in protest about the treatment of himself and his fellow republican inmates which was extremely unpleasant and cruel in a variety of ways. This was during the dirty protest during which many people think that prisoners chose to live in there own excrement and urine and smear it on the walls. They didnt! They had no toilets and had to use a bucket, one day they were informed that they would not be allowed to empty there buckets unless they abandoned other (non violent) protests. as there dirt built up the prison authorities blocked the doors so that none could drain away, When the prisoners stood firm the authorities then removed the beds so the prisoners spread there urine and excrement on the walls so that they wouldnt quite literally swallow it, even drown in it while they slept. Rightly or wrongly Bobby Sands saw himself as an officer in a national resistance army and felt an obligation to protect the men under his command, even at the cost of his own life and began his hunger strike.

Bobby Sands had overwhelmingly massive suppport from Irish people who opposed the IRA, that is why he was elected to parliament with a larger majority than the British prime minister and as a percentage of population had more mourners at his funeral than Lady Diana. He was among other things stabbed, evicted and driven from employment by unionist thugs before he joined the IRA, and was therefore seen as a victim who while joining a violent campaign many of his supporters could not condone, had nonetheless never personally succumbed to barbarity or bigotry and who died in what can arguably be percieved as a tremendous demonstration of loyalty courage and conviction. He had no fundamentalist religious conviction though when he was close to death and a priest asked him to call it off he quoted a saint and said "no greater love hath man than that he lay down his life for his friends"

PALESTINIAN SUICIDE BOMBER:-

Has killed as many people as he can, often it is clear that he (or she) has tried to get as many children as possible (not a palestinian I know but check th footage of the failed london bomber who pointed his rucksack bomb at a baby in a pram). He will have made a gloating video beforehand asking allah to help him kill as many as possible and confirming his absolute conviction that after a death without time for much pain he will be indiulged in all vices in paradise for eternity.

He may well have sought to bomb both sides away from the negotiating table, and may have succeeded, but he never ever aimed to create an impetus for negotiation.

No matter what your opinion on the anglo irish war or the arab israeli conflict THE TWO CANNOT BE RATIONALLY COMPARED.

GERRY ADAMS:-

was originally in the IRA because of family background but at a time when it was transforming itself from a military organisation to a social/ political one (even selling its guns to pay for leaflets). at the IRA split he went with the newly re-militarised provisionals because his community (quite literally his housing estate) was under attack and his whole family was involved in its defence. He didnt fail to be forthright from the begining and in fact travelled to England for peace talks in the 70's. no one in government was willing to talk to the republicans again until the 90's by which time Gerry Adams had personally led the political wing from a position subservient to the IRA to a tentative leadership position (greatly aided by the example of Bobby sands)

None of this in and of itself means your opinion should be anti Palestinian or pro IRA, it just means that your opinion as it stands is ill informed and flawed.

I would love to know what other similarities you perceive?

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