Ireland Peace Process

Thomas Plate says that a “diplomatic Houdini” will be needed to extricate British officials from their embarrassment over the IRA’s refusal to surrender its weapons (Commentary, July 17). May I point out that it was diplomatic chicanery that got them into this mess in the first place?

Prime Minister John Major abandoned whatever high ground he ever held when he engaged in furtive, open-ended negotiations with IRA thugs in 1993 while certifying publicly that such activities would “turn my stomach.” It is therefore not surprising that his shrill demands for the IRA to disarm itself as a precondition for further talks have been rejected.

In a perverse effort at even-handedness, he now makes similar overtures to equally murderous and unrepresentative private armies at the opposite end of the political spectrum. Like generations of English politicians before him, his policies toward Ulster are long on subterfuge and duplicity, but short on honesty and conference.

A note: Many descriptive titles could be applied to John Hume, but “Protestant leader” is not one of them.

JOHN WALKER

Pasadena