Irish Republican News, 9.7.2007
BRITISH ARMY LEARN NOTHING
A bizarre British Army document has come to light which purports to
summarise the lessons taken by the force from its engagement in conflict in
the North of Ireland. The review of the British Army's war against the IRA suggests little or
nothing was learned from its 37-year period of occupation, most
disturbingly in regard to the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre.
The analysis is contained in a secret report on 'Operation Banner', the
British Army's name for the military occupation and resulting conflict in
the North of Ireland, which was recently obtained by the Derry-based human
rights group the Pat Finucane Centre.
The report does not discuss in any detail the killing of the 14 marchers
in Derry nor the decision to use the murderous Parachute Regiment to police
a civilian march; instead, it focusses on the obscure point of the
deployment of soldiers in armoured vehicles rather than on foot.
While referring to the "defeat" of the Provisional IRA, the document makes
only seven references to unionist paramilitaries in its 98 pages and none
at all to acts of collusion or murder by the British Army's Force Research
Unit.
The report claims the only two examples of "poor military decision-making"
to stand out over the 37 years were during the 'Falls curfew' and Bloody
Sunday.
However, the reference to Bloody Sunday does not deal with the decisions
to open fire on unarmed civilians in 1972.
The authors only highlight the "manner in which the arrest operation on
Bloody Sunday was conducted, using vehicles to approach the crowd.
The decision to do so was not hasty but, with hindsight, seems heavy
handed," they say.
John Kelly, a brother of 17-year-old Bloody Sunday victim Michael Kelly,
described the comments as "despicable".
"They said the biggest lesson was the use of vehicles - they are not
taking into account the loss of human life," he said.
"The deaths on Bloody Sunday were totally immaterial. It is clear the
people of Derry do not count to the British army."
Paul O'Connor of the Pat Finucane Centre also described the report as
"deeply flawed".
He said it offered a worrying insight into the thinking of senior officers
and civil servants at the Ministry of Defence and called for it to be
withdrawn immediately.
A British Army spokesman said the analysis considered high-level general
issues which may be applicable to future campaigns.
The authors of the report point to 'Operation Motorman' in 1972 under
which British forces took control of previous no-go areas in nationalist
areas as a major turning point in the war.
The report lists as a "terrorist" 15-year-old Daniel Hegarty, shot dead
in the Creggan area of Derry, despite an official British acknowledgement
in 2002 that the teenager was as innocent civilian.
Daniel Hegarty's sister, Margaret Brady. said the latest "debacle"
showed her family was right to continue to campaign to have Daniel's name
cleared.
"The British army looked at their original documents and didn't even check
things out," she said.
"Once again Daniel's name has been wrongly blackened before the world.
This document must be withdrawn immediately and Daniel's good name must be
restored." she said.
The use of covert operations by the British army is also singled out as
vital to its success in Ireland, with the Loughgall massacre highlighted as
a breakthrough.
"PIRA seems to have been brought to believe that there was no answer to
army covert operations and that they would not win through violence.
That was probably a key factor," the report says.
They say that while the British army did not win the war in "any
recognisable way", it achieved its "end-state".
The report is significant for its failure to discuss Crown force collusion
with unionist death squads, bizarrely claiming that its own notorious
Ulster Defence Regiment had ensured "extreme loyalist violence was
relatively rare".
But among the most extraordinary statements in the report was a dismissive
description of the motivation of IRA Volunteers as "a wish to glamourise a
somewhat third-rate way of life, through esteem amongst the republican
community or, more simply, in bars or with women."
In his foreword, former British Army head General Mike Jackson said
campaign [Operation Banner] is "one of the very few every brought to a
successful conclusion by the armed forces of a developed nation against an
irregular force".
He said the "lessons learned" in Ireland have already been used in
Afghanistan and Iraq.
