The British army is recognised as the best in the world
they are right up there, that's for sure. along with us over here, they are widely regarded to have the best trained, best motivated and most experienced guys in the world. a strong case can be made that the SAS are hands down the best special operations force in the world. the royal marine commandos are the cream of the crop as far as amphibious forces are concerned. they have the 2nd best navy in the world and a top notch airforce.
now i already know that some are going to use that against me and say "and the ira beat them" blah, blah, blah. you guys do realize that the conflict in northern ireland was fought with political decisions in mind right? to put it bluntly, if we are talking a real war the brits could round up the whole country and put them in internment camps if they saw fit, or simply reduce the whole of ireland to a pile of rumble from the air.
It wasn't a real war FF, we know that buddy. It was more insurgency and counter insurgency. IRA could never stand up a conventional army against the British Military, and I doubt they ever intended to do so. It was the same tactics used by VC in Vietnam and The war in Iraq, hit them where it hurts, but don't leave a conventional fighting force for them to attack.
The British Army with all of its might could do nothing to the IRA because they didn't know who were the fighters and who were the civilians. What are they going to do now, round up all the Irish and stick them in camps? In this day and age every country in Europe and around the world would be calling for England's head and even more support would be leveraged to the IRA.
The Brits are in a lose-lose situation and they know it. They can't launch an all out attack against Ireland because they will look in the wrong. What are they gonna do to justify it?? "uh....we invaded these guys a few hundred years back, so this is technically our land"..I don't think so, amigo.
Besides the Irish have too much support in the USA with the high numbers of Irish immigrants in the country. Wasn't it the first attack against the British where there was an Irish American guy involved and they executed all of them but him? Britain knew not to jeopardize its political relations by executing an American.( I may be off a little on that story but it followed those guidlines)
It's a tricky situation for Britain even though they labeled the IRA as a terrorist organization if fighting ever started again, you can bet that the USA would sit back and not get a dog in that fight. Likewise, when it comes to Ireland, Britain doesn't have much support from anyone. The world is too liberal and no one believes in Britain's right to take over a country it never had the business being in in the first place. They only wanted to exploit Ireland for it's resources the same as they did America, trust me everyone sees that.
The IRA doesn't need to spill blood anymore they have proven their point. All Britain can do is beef up its military presence in Northern Ireland and watch its power slowly dissipate from their hands. The Irish are slowly taking back what's rightfully theirs. Ireland was never Britains to begin with, so its absolute justice seeing the People of Ireland finally take back what is rightfully theirs.
