We are not so far removed from the days when any mention of British security forces in connection with raids on suspected terrorists was greeted with condemnation and skepticism in Irish-America. And there was reason for that reaction — British security forces had made a botch of many an arrest during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The wrong people had been seized and imprisoned. The security forces were ruthless in the execution of their duties, breaking into homes in the middle of the night, grabbing suspects from their beds as spouses and children screamed in terror.
Irish-American activists regularly criticized these tactics. Now, however, the story is very different indeed.
If you believe that Islamic terrorists pose a threat to the West, that they mean it when they say — as they told The New York Times recently — that they wish to impose Islamic law on Europe, then you by necessity must be rooting for Britain’s security forces. And, of course, for the security forces of all allied governments. Every arrest made in Britain (and Spain, and France, and Italy) makes America slightly safer, because Europe and America face a common enemy.
It’s an odd tick of history, isn’t it? The very tactics, the very agencies, used by the British against the Irish and condemned by Irish America are now being employed against Islamic terrorists who pray daily for America’s destruction. Yesterday’s perfidious agent of the Crown is today’s friend and ally, fighting the common fight against the enemies of Western civilization.
Eighty years ago, a young Irishman named Michael Collins went to war with British intelligence, understanding that in the kind of war the Irish were fighting for their freedom, information mattered more than territory. It was a different kind of war, the Tan War, and Michael Collins fought it in a manner that others would imitate later in the 20th Century.
Today, the grandchildren, so to speak, of the men who fought Michael Collins are on the front lines in the British theater of the war on terror. And, therefore, they are fighting for our freedom — our freedom from fear.
The terms of debate over Northern Ireland have changed since the IRA’s ceasefire and Gerry Adams’s historic foray into constitutional politics. And now, as Britain’s once-dreaded security forces turn their attention to terrorists who would incinerate New York if they had the chance and the means, it’s time portions of Irish America recalibrate their language and their mindset.
British security forces did some awful things in Ireland. The IRA did some awful things in Ireland. Some awful things continue to be done in Ireland.
But 9/11 changed everything — at least, that’s what so many of us said at the time. Among the changes ought to be a new appreciation of the men and women who work in Britain’s security forces, as constables, soldiers or in MI6 and MI5. Like it or not, they’re our most dependable allies now.
To an Islamic terrorist, we’re all the same anyway: British, Irish American, Jews, African American — we’re all infidels whose deaths are to be expedited and welcomed.
Some months ago, I wrote in this space that Irish Americans ought to be in the forefront of opposition to the increasingly popular notion of an American empire. The Irish know full well what it means to be governed, if that is the correct word, by an imperial power. Their long resistance to imperial rule should be a cautionary tale for those who seem to believe that America has a mission to rule the world, or at least that portion of it with large oil reserves.
In that sense, Irish America ought to remember its experience, ought to remember why there is an Irish-America in the first place: Our families came here to escape imperial rule and because many believed in the virtue of republican government. They saw a republic as the exact opposite of an empire.
But as we face continued threats to our existence from a frightening new enemy, Irish America has an obligation to put grievance and memory aside and root for the men and women who once inspired protests and invective — the men and women of Britain’s security forces.
No doubt there are some on the left, Irish Americans included, who believe that today’s Islamic terrorists somehow are freedom fighters seeking to throw off the yoke of Western oppression and therefore deserving of solidarity and sympathy. For those who think that way, Britain’s security forces — and the FBI and CIA, for that matter — continue to be the real enemy.
Most people, it seems fair to say, have a different view of Islamic terrorism. They do not believe that the terrorists are romantic avengers of past injustice, defenders of the poor and oppressed. They see Islamic terrorism for what it is: intolerant, aggressive and hate-filled, a threat to the lives of anyone who disagrees with its dogma.
If you believe the terrorists must be defeated, it means that every time the British round up a parcel of suspects, you regard it as another small victory for freedom.