July 2, 2001

8:56 AM

Ireland is headed downhill David Trimble resigns. Macedonia slides ever closer to Civil War and the Israeli-Palestinian truce is close to collapse. Time to pray.
posted by stbalbach (5 comments total)

...in other words it's just as they said it would be; the new century is just like the last one, only worse. What's even worse than that is, I know exactly what spaceports are going to be like. Theyre going to be just like airports.
posted by jfuller at 9:19 AM on July 2, 2001

The religious and racial underpinnings of these conflicts make them virtually impossible to solve. It is disheartening that generation after generation of people are raised with beliefs that lead them directly into violent conflict with others in the name of their God or Country.

What a waste of people on something so utterly valueless.
posted by plaino at 9:28 AM on July 2, 2001

Crazy Americans.
posted by thirteen at 9:31 AM on July 2, 2001

Even if you take the religion away from this situation, it's still a tough one.

On one side you have the Republicans who want Northern Ireland to either a) become its own state, or b) rejoin with Ireland. On the other side, you have the Unionists who want Northern Ireland to remain part of the UK.

These two groups are dispersed throughout the province.

So what do you do? Even if they held a democratic vote, which is hard in a place with so much fear and bullying present, will the losing side bother paying attention to it? Course not.

Seems much like the Israeli - Palestinian thing to me. Perhaps when one of these two conflicts is solved, the method could be used on the other.
posted by wackybrit at 9:41 AM on July 2, 2001

You need a clear winner. In the old days, people fought wars openly, and winners could do as they pleased. The United States, for example, summarily conquered the Injuns and now (rightly) use them as team mascots when they run out of brave animals. Same thing with the open wars that have helped define Israel's borders and legitimacy. We never like to admit it, but history recognizes a military victory that sticks.
posted by Joe Hutch at 10:23 AM on July 2, 2001