The Wandering Donkey

Trouble's make a return?

The BBC is reporting that there has been an attack by unknown assailants on Massereene Army base in Antrim, Northern Ireland which is about 16 miles northwest of Belfast.

Two military personnel were killed while 4 persons were wounded, two military and two civilian.

As far as the likely identity of the assailants the BBC has this:

David Ford, the leader of the Alliance Party, said it was "inconceivable" that the attack could have been carried out by anyone other than dissident republicans.

"The important thing is that we must not see politics and the peace settlement that we have, fragile though it is, destabilised by this kind of action," he added.

We can only agree with SDLP¹ Assembly member Thomas Burns:

"Like many, we had hoped and prayed that nights like this were firmly in the past. It is important we unite as a community and send out a message to those responsible that they have absolutely no support."

We all hope that this is an isolated incident and that no one overreacts to this.

1 The SDLP, Social Democratic and Labour Party, is the principal party of the nationalist/Catholic community in Northern Ireland.

Comments welcome,

Pat McGovern

It's got electoral votes. It's what politicians crave.

Obama to delay push to eliminate "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

The Washington Times reports that the Obama administration may delay having Congress roll back the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy on homosexuality.

I do hope the left doesn't overreact to this. I am for gay rights as much as anyone but, I also clearly remember the amount of politcal capital that was flushed down the toilet as William Jefferson Clinton, for whatever reason, made this one of his first issues 16 years ago. It became a huge firestorm and squandered capital that could have been used for other things while not really acheiving anything. A little patience would have gone a long way back then.

I don't expect this to turn into what that did then but, why take the chance? Let's make sure this is done right. There is no reason for making this one of the main priorities on day one. I don't like waiting either, but if what comes out is a more perfect policy than what we would get if we ran willy-nilly into it without paving the road first, I suspect that that will be worth waiting a little bit longer for.

Hopefully, my comrades in arms on the left also see the wisdom in this course of action. We'll see...

Comments welcome,

Pat McGovern

It's got electoral votes. It's what politicians crave.