6 February 1997 Edition
Mála Poist
Note
Letters -- even if sent via e-mail -- should include name and address for verification
Keep them short -- short letters have a better chance of being published and a better chance of being read.
A Chairde,
I'm very disappointed in one major respect with An Phoblacht, 30 January. Nowhere in the eight page Bloody Sunday pullout nor in any of the other pages, does the name of the most guilty British soldier appear. Other names mentioned, such as Ford, MacLellan and Wilford are certainly war criminals, but the one who planned and initiated the deliberate slaughter on that day was Kitson, at that time the British army's guru on `counter-revolutionary' warfare. He had just completed his book `Low Intensity Operations' and had been sent by the British government to the Six Counties to put his plans into effect to terrorise the civilian population into submission.
On the day, others directed the murder operations, but it had been planned and initiated by Kitson.
His plan, of course, despite the savagery imposed on Derry, did not succeed in terrorising the nationalist people - indeed they responded in the opposite vein, they stood up and have remained standing up ever since.
Now that more evidence shows clearly the guilt of those British forces in Derry on the day, never must the main guilt of Kitson be overlooked.
`Observer',
Bristol.
A Chairde,
Sir Patrick Mayhew's use of aggressive language in attacking the IRA was being read as a further sign that the security situation in the North may be about to deteriorate further.
Or was it Sir Patrick's intention to provoke a further deterioration in the situation? Instead of making provocative and inflammatory speeches Sir Patrick Mayhew would better employ what little time he has left as Northern Ireland Secretary in urging the Unionists to accept the recommendation of an Independent Commission, instead of the RUC, to adjudicate on contentious marches.
Joe Murphy,
Birmingham.
Letters -- even if sent via e-mail -- should include name and address for verification
Keep them short -- short letters have a better chance of being published and a better chance of being read.
Kitson overlooked
A Chairde,
I'm very disappointed in one major respect with An Phoblacht, 30 January. Nowhere in the eight page Bloody Sunday pullout nor in any of the other pages, does the name of the most guilty British soldier appear. Other names mentioned, such as Ford, MacLellan and Wilford are certainly war criminals, but the one who planned and initiated the deliberate slaughter on that day was Kitson, at that time the British army's guru on `counter-revolutionary' warfare. He had just completed his book `Low Intensity Operations' and had been sent by the British government to the Six Counties to put his plans into effect to terrorise the civilian population into submission.
On the day, others directed the murder operations, but it had been planned and initiated by Kitson.
His plan, of course, despite the savagery imposed on Derry, did not succeed in terrorising the nationalist people - indeed they responded in the opposite vein, they stood up and have remained standing up ever since.
Now that more evidence shows clearly the guilt of those British forces in Derry on the day, never must the main guilt of Kitson be overlooked.
`Observer',
Bristol.
Mayhew's aggressive language
A Chairde,
Sir Patrick Mayhew's use of aggressive language in attacking the IRA was being read as a further sign that the security situation in the North may be about to deteriorate further.
Or was it Sir Patrick's intention to provoke a further deterioration in the situation? Instead of making provocative and inflammatory speeches Sir Patrick Mayhew would better employ what little time he has left as Northern Ireland Secretary in urging the Unionists to accept the recommendation of an Independent Commission, instead of the RUC, to adjudicate on contentious marches.
Joe Murphy,
Birmingham.