Oh that would never be the stated claim at least not officially we all know that. Most invaders want to be seen as liberators or protectors if the people they invade. (Note how America has followed our British forbear’s example in the Middle East during our invasions there)
If what you say is what the American Government was thinking, denu; then the Americans had not read their history properly, because the British got their ass kicked there. A few hundred years later the Russians got their ass kicked also. Looking at the way things are going at the moment the British are still getting our ass kicked, but at least this time we are not on our own.
Oh personally I fully agree both sides should have put away their toys and went home like 50 years ago or never started fighting to begin with after the peace Collins helped make with the British. I understand the British argument for continued occupation, I also understand their opposition...though considering the resolve of the people wanting one united Ireland free of occupancy by outsiders and all the trouble its caused I must say that someone on both sides of the peace table dropped the ball in Collins day or at the very least lacked foresight.
The British could not pack up and leave, and until it is a United Ireland I doubt that they ever will. The IRA started something they could never win, because the majority of the population in Northern Ireland where Protestants. All the time the loyalists held the governing power and supposedly wanted to be part of the UK, the soldiers would stay. One of the reasons was because of the Protestant Para Military being in a better position with many more soldiers in the correct place than the IRA.

If the soldiers left Northern Ireland the Protestants would overwhelm the Catholics proclaiming Northern Ireland their own. They would then UK that theirs was the right under the majority rule. However, the British Soldier where not going to leave at any price. Make no mistake there would have been a blood bath, and then the British would have been accused of failing the Catholics. The right dishonorable Ian Paisley came very close to stating that very fact so many times, and he was as much of a pain in the ass to the peace treaty as the political arm of the IRA.

Paisley was an instigator of violence and was disliked almost as much as the IRA by the British Soldier. He coveted his place in the British Parliament and used his position to cover his own illegal membership of the protestant Para Military. To be factual he also had a lot of blood on his hands, making him no better or worse than Martin McGuiness. Paisley, never wanted peace, and that’s why he was forever shouting his mouth off at every opportunity. It was to instigate more violence by giving speeches that had double meanings.

When Paisley dies, the term Reverend will be of little use to him as he forfeited the right to hold that status. He and McGuiness can shout at each other while they stoke the fires of hell.

When in the Province I attended as many Protestant riots as I did Catholic, and we did as many house searches in the Protestant areas as we did in the Catholic. The Irish were more of a danger to themselves and their kin and other Irish, than the British soldier could ever be on a bad day. It was the Irish that were fighting the war between themselves, and the British soldier stayed there to make sure they couldn’t.

Be well IAN 2411