4 February 1999 Edition
Back issue: Thatcher's latest victim
Life came to an end for a young British soldier in Belfast on Tuesday night. He died in a war that was not of his making, in a country he probably knew little about apart from what his superiors told him. But he dies as soldiers who take up the gun to oppress the people of another country will inevitably die.
Private Nicholas Peacock came from Grantham in Lincolnshire. Another person comes from that English town, a person who is an enthusiastic supporter of violence and terrorism in Ireland. That individual was safe in her bed when the 20-year-old soldier became the latest stastistic in her Irish war. Yet that person and the government of which she is head bears more responsibility for the deaths of British soldiers and RUC members, IRA Volunteers and Irish and British civilians than anyone in Britain or Ireland.
The soldier from Lincolnshire was killed in an IRA ambush far away from his home. The IRA soldiers who attacked his patrol were fighting in their own city, in defence of their own homes and communities. But for the political masters who sent Private Peacock and thousands of others like him to defend the interests of a foreign government in Ireland there would be no more deaths like that on Tuesday night or the death on the previous Friday of RUC man Stephen Montgomery.
Private Nicholas Peacock came from Grantham in Lincolnshire. Another person comes from that English town, a person who is an enthusiastic supporter of violence and terrorism in Ireland. That individual was safe in her bed when the 20-year-old soldier became the latest stastistic in her Irish war. Yet that person and the government of which she is head bears more responsibility for the deaths of British soldiers and RUC members, IRA Volunteers and Irish and British civilians than anyone in Britain or Ireland.
The soldier from Lincolnshire was killed in an IRA ambush far away from his home. The IRA soldiers who attacked his patrol were fighting in their own city, in defence of their own homes and communities. But for the political masters who sent Private Peacock and thousands of others like him to defend the interests of a foreign government in Ireland there would be no more deaths like that on Tuesday night or the death on the previous Friday of RUC man Stephen Montgomery.