The Saville report into Bloody Sunday

[Louis VI the Fat]

I agree with you in every respect - in principle.

However, there is also realpolitik.

The perfect should not be the enemy of the good, that you may be quite right about.

Peace settlements are intricate, precarious business, that require some moving on. Not all Nazis, not all collaborators could be prosecuted - there wouldn't have been a Europe left. At the other end of the scale are the juntas of Latin America, who proclaim full amnesty for themselves and maintain it with the threat of renewed military intervention. The shrink for the tortured, the grave for the victims, and continued provocations for the perpetrators.

Somewhere some balance has to be struck. What the wisest balance would be for the British Isles, I am not sure. To me, it is not a simple 'let bygones be bygones'. In turn, prosecuting each and every crime - that seems beyond the realm of the wise and possible too.



I must say the prediction / assessement / threat of renewed violence doesn't cut it for me. If the prosecution of murderers is made impossible because the murderers will then resume murdering, then there is obviously no peace, but blackmail.

Not at all. It's only British and Northern Irish who will be inconvenienced by any resumption of violence, whereas the message that justice is inescapable can be sent throughout the world, so the prosecution of the fighters on either side is entirely worthwhile.

Britain had little trouble in inconveniencing the peace process / amnesty in Chile, when it apprehended Pinochet.

The International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague prosecutes perpetrators of the Yugoslavian war, sometimes with disregard for the internal political situation in the former Yugoslav republics. From the lowest to the very highest rank have been prosecuted. As far as I'm concerned, the second largest post-WWII civil war in Europe - in the British Isles - is not at all above prosecution either.

Not that I expect any such thing to happen. Such is the prerogative of the mighty.

but that is kind of the problem, it isn't Britain's job to care what the rest of the world thinks, it is Britain's job to seek the welfare of its citizens as its paramount duty.

the first duty of a sovereign nation state is the provision of internal and external security.

Quite so. It is indeed the first job of a state to protect the lives and welfare of its citizens...


That is, it is the first duty of the British state to protect the lives of British citizens, and it is my duty to see to it that it does so indeed. That the human rights of all people on the British Isles are protected, in first instance by their states, and if not, by outside intervention. Such is the limit of sovereignity.
(Yes it is. As to any objections, I refer to international involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan, former Yugoslavia etc)