THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 6, 1994 TAG: 9410060021
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A18 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 49 lines
Ever wonder why terrorism is so widespread around the world? The answer is simple: It works. Just ask Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein - the political front group for the Irish Republican Army - who is now embarked on a triumphal tour of the United States that would do any rock star proud.
While the Clinton administration declined to receive Adams at the White House, he is being accorded just about every other privilege a visiting head of state could expect: meetings with congressional leaders, State Department officials and National Security Council staff. He will be visiting many cities on a two-week tour, incredibly presenting himself as a man of peace and justice.
Not bad for the leader of a political organization that garners only 2 percent of the total vote in elections in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and around 12 percent of the total vote in the latter alone. The majority of Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland cast their ballots for John Hume's Social Democratic and Labor Party, which abjures violent efforts to reunify Ireland.
Adams is no man of peace. The IRA has not limited its terrorist acts to British military and security forces and civilians, but routinely ``polices'' the Catholic population as well. If Adams opposes such barbaric acts as ``kneecapping,'' the shooting in the knees of IRA opponents that often leaves victims crippled, then the organization has continued doing it in spite of him.
Adams' new-found respectability, of course, stems from last August's IRA cease-fire. Cease-fire or no, however, Sinn Fein/IRA goals have not changed. The organization seeks the termination of British rule in Northern Ireland, regardless of the wishes of the Protestant majority that lives there. Adams clearly intends to use his time in the United States to put political pressure on the Clinton administration to get the British government to agree to a withdrawal.
Adams is a cold-eyed political realist who has gotten to where he is by the calculated use of violence. He is no romantic barroom balladeer revolutionary. The Clinton administration, which already has its hands full with global internecine conflicts, would be well-advised to keep its distance from Adams and Northern Ireland. by CNB