The Troubles They Are a-Comin'
I’m sure millions of Americans, in 2019, three years ago, would’ve never guessed their country would look as it does in 2022. What will we look like in another three years, in 2025?
I’m not the only person who thinks the next American civil armed conflict will resemble The Troubles of Northern Ireland. Minds on both sides of our political divide have come to believe the streets of America’s cities may come to resemble that of Belfast and Derry in the years to come. One of these minds is Malcolm Nance, a retired Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer who has become one of the Regime’s most favored voices on national security issues:
That was just the end of a much longer series of thoughts proffered by Nance during his appearance on MSNBC’s Zerlina program [bold mine]:
Nance said, “I was reading their forums. I was reading their own intelligence about what they intended to do. w[sic]It was pretty clear at that point that they were going to try to either overthrow the government or they were going to settle in for a long-term series of destabilizing actions using a political party, the Republican party, as their political base and then using violence, threat of violent extremism as a way to manifest change in the street. So remove politics from the halls of power and change politics through violence on the street. This is called an insurgency. The insurrection that happened on January 6 that was one event. An insurgency is a chain of events. It’s common knowledge. A year and a half ago, when I was calling this an insurgency, people were saying, that’s crazy, this isn’t an insurgency, this isn’t like Iraq, it’s not like Libya, it’s not like Syria. Well, it is. And it’s well on its way. It’s closer to the beginnings of the Irish Republican Army. You know Irish Republicanism, where now the Republican Party is Sinn Fein, and it’s just a matter of seeing who comes up as the original Irish Republicans in this story and starts carrying out acts of violence to affect change. So we are well on our way to a multi-year campaign that we are already two years into this campaign where we may have to fight them. The ‘they’ in my title and the ‘they’ in my title is those who want to kill Americans are your neighbors.”
The comments are shocking, though not surprising. Nance’s views have become increasingly prevalent on the Left, that right-wing Americans and the Republican Party pose threats to democracy and the republic. An entire cottage industry has emerged around this narrative, which has its roots in the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot. I’ve written extensively in the past about the academics and journalists making names for themselves talking about the supposed right-wing extremist threat to the United States and Nance represents the military wing of this emerging axis. What he says here in this interview really is more of the same we’ve been subjected to for the past one-and-a-half years. What’s surprising is that Nance believes the American Right is comparable to Irish republicanism and the Republican Party to Sinn Féin (“We Ourselves” in English).
On it’s surface, the comparison is ludicrous. Sinn Féin is a left-wing party and anti-status quo in that their long-term goal is a united Ireland, which would result in Northern Ireland breaking away from the United Kingdom. The U.S. Republican Party is obviously not left-wing and, though there does exist some secessionist impulses on the Right, it’s historically been a pro-status quo party due to its conservatism.
On the other hand, the U.S. is now a center-left country, which means the Republicans are increasingly less representative of the status quo. In an age of revolution and where “progress” is the point, Republicans are becoming more outcast and counter-cultural, so the comparison with Sinn Féin in its earlier days does have some merit.
I don’t want to get too deep into analyzing the comparison because that requires knowing more about the history of The Troubles. The comparison ultimately falls apart because the history of Northern Ireland and the conflict is unique and it becomes more and more difficult to draw parallels the deeper you get into it. The reason I focus on The Troubles so much isn’t because of the history, but because of the nature of the conflict. It wasn’t a war in a strict sense and while the military played a major role, most of the violence occurred between paramilitary non-state actors. It was a sectarian conflict which occurred in the developed world, which is why it was so notable in the first place. Though the IRA (the Provisional IRA, in particular) eventually developed a strategy for achieving long-term political aims, the vast majority of the violence constituted bombings, murders, rioting, and other incidents which most of us would consider more along the lines of crime and civil unrest than war, albeit at an outsized scale.
But even if this wasn’t anything as destructive and intense as today’s war in Ukraine, the bloodshed and social ramifications of The Troubles are nothing to underplay. I’m currently reading a book called Wasted Years, Wasted Lives Volume I: The British Army in Northern Ireland 1975-77 authored by Ken Wharton, a former British soldier. What I’m struck by is the utter senselessness of it all. The killing accomplished almost nothing, except heartbreak and invite even more killing in response. As the title suggests, they were truly wasted years and wasted lives.
Here’s an example of the kind of routine killings that defined The Troubles as described in the book. After you read, ask yourself: do you want to see this in our country?
In their long and inglorious history, the IRA – both wings – have displayed the utmost cowardice in dealing with the security forces, preferring to shoot them from behind, to call in hoax bomb calls and lure them into a deadly situation, even to shooting them in hospitals. In the annals of cowardice, if there be such a thing, the killing of Kieran McCann (19) on 22 January must rank up there with their most shameful exploits. The young man worked at a garage at Eglish, Co Tyrone, between Moy and Aughnacloy and was working there when PIRA1 gunmen forced him to leave the premises. They took him at gunpoint a few hundred yards away to a ruined house where they shot him four times in the head at very close range. An apologist – or spokesman – for the Provisionals claimed that he had been spying for the RUC2. It is not recorded whether or not the spokesman actually believed what he was reading out to the assembled press. A leading member of the Church said: ‘I find it difficult to understand how any human being could be guilty of such a crime.’ One wonders if that Cardinal had not lived in Northern Ireland over the previous five and a half years. The young man’s father was a soldier in the UDR3, and it is possible that the terror group murdered him for this reason; guilty by association.
War is cruel, but there’s something especially cruel about the manner in which people were killed during The Troubles. Many of the casualties weren’t belligerents and had no reason to expect to be targeted. Violence wasn’t persistent, but it happened frequently, yet unexpectedly. You just never knew whether and when you might end up being a victim.
I just started watching an excellent documentary I discovered on YouTube titled Spotlight On The Troubles: A Secret History. It’s the first of a multi-part series which aired on BBC in 2019, the 50th anniversary of British troops being deployed to Northern Ireland. It mentions that, despite the air of tension in the country due to its history, Northern Ireland was a relatively tranquil place in 1966, but three years later, the British military had to march in because the violence had gotten completely out of hand. It’s a real-life reminder of how quickly a society can go from safe and orderly to dangerous and disorderly in such a short period of time. I’m sure millions of Americans, in 2019, three years ago, would’ve never guessed their country would look as it does in 2022. What will we look like in another three years, in 2025?
One of the first incidents which marked the beginning of The Troubles was the murder of 18-year-old Peter Ward, occurring as he and two friends, all Catholics, left a bar predominantly attended by Protestants. Ward’s killers were member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a Protestant and loyalist paramilitary group which, at the time, was very new to the scene. One of the survivors and Ward’s friends speaks about the incident in Spotlight On The Troubles (starts at around 4:30)
Horrendous as the murder was, it also wasn’t particularly extraordinary. It wasn’t a bombing, a mass shooting, or some other large scale terrorist attack. In the U.S. today, murders like these are part of the landscape of many American cities. It took almost two years before the violence really took off and when it did, there was no stopping it. At the risk of downplaying the murder of Peter Ward, civil conflict can often have seemingly innocuous beginnings, underscoring that it doesn’t always take a 9/11-level catastrophe to spark an upheaval.
This is how Northern Ireland lived for four decades. There was nothing pretty about it. Malcolm Nance should know. After all, he served in the military and he recently came back from Ukraine, whose citizens are in the fight of their lives against a ferocious military power. Nance claimed to have gone over to fight the Russians and though it’s doubtful he did any fighting at all (notice how clean he looks for someone involved in a knock-out, drag-out war), he should at least be aware that armed conflict at any level can be hugely destabilizing, even for a country as big and strong as America.
Instead of using his experience to convince Americans of the need to de-escalate tensions in our country, he instead comes back stoked for a fight. If the Republican Party is Sinn Féin and the U.S. is at the mercy of an IRA-like threat from right-wing Americans, then what does that make the Democratic Party and the Left? The equally-murderous UVF? Does he want to see 18-year-olds gunned down like Peter Ward and 19-year-olds like Kieran McCann kidnapped and executed because someone deemed them guilty by association? Is Nance going to put on a ski-hood and drive to the homes of his Republican and right-wing neighbors in the dark of night, break into their homes, and murder them, bomb their businesses, and terrorize them, just as the IRA and UVF did to Protestant and Catholic civilians, respectively? Or is Nance trying to radicalize Democrats and left-wing Americans into doing it on his behalf, because he lacks the conviction to get his own hands bloody?
What’s he getting at, here?
Better yet, what’s his take on the vicious, savage acts of crime we see on a daily basis in the U.S.? Isn’t crime a national security issue, due to it’s potential to destabilize society if it runs rampantly unchecked? Nance wants to kill Americans because having certain political views supposedly makes you an insurgent, but what about the horrendous atrocities committed daily by those who profess no political allegiance? Take a look at some of these recent incidents:
Meanwhile, Asian-Americans in the Bay Area of California are effectively in a “Troubles” situation already. Here, you see two violent criminals murder a 52-year-old Chinese-American in much the same way the IRA or UVF used to murder their victims in Northern Ireland, in broad daylight, no less. Is Nance aware that Asian-Americans and other law-abiding residents of the Bay Area fear for their lives as much as the residents of Belfast once did?
(WARNING: Explicit content)
Then there are crimes like these. Brazen, casual theft and ransacking, knowing full well the anarcho-tyranny America currently lives under will never allow them to be stopped:
Incidents like these are what most Americans are worried about and are at risk of, not Republicans and “right-wing insurgents.” Does Nance have answer for any of this? Is he willing to go to war and kill Americans to protect us from violent criminals? Or does this simply not bother him? Maybe he doesn’t even have a problem with any of it?
I speculated that fissures over hot-button issues like abortion would be the spark that ignites the next American civil war. Now I’m thinking it’s going to be a more fundamental issue - crime and social instability. We cannot endure this level of self-destruction for long if it keeps getting worse. Likewise, if people like Nance keep stoking the embers of partisan political hatred, we could very well be in the same position as Northern Ireland was in 1966.
If you need more convincing, look at what an Oakland, CA councilman had to say about the rising crime:
Councilman Gallo said the police force is down by roughly 100 officers and allied agencies have staffing issues as well and can't help as much.
"For me, the only alternative I have left is to call out the National Guard. Have the governor send out the National Guard to help protect us," Gallo said. "I'm not joking."
Councilman Gallo said he recently urged the mayor to reach out to the governor since he said only the mayor's office can make that request.
We might be that close to seeing troops in the streets if order cannot be maintained. The British soldiers who entered Northern Ireland in 1969 never thought there would still be boots on the ground almost 40 years later. America’s own “Troubles” might seem far off, but you can see it from here. Be aware, know what’s happening when it does, and prepare to live your lives a little differently, as the people of Northern Ireland did.
On an ironic note, it’s interesting to see anarcho-tyrant President Joe Biden remark about the treatment of Irish Catholics under British rule, suggesting a sympathy for Irish republicanism. I guess you just can never draw bold lines around any side or anyone!
Max Remington writes about armed conflict and prepping. Follow him on Twitter at @AgentMax90.
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PIRA: Provisional Irish Republican Army. Formed in 1969 when the “legacy” IRA underwent a split into two factions, the other known as the “Official IRA.” Between the two, PIRA was more active and more violent and often clashed with the OIRA, in addition to the Ulster loyalists and British security forces.
RUC: Royal Ulster Constabulary, Northern Ireland’s law enforcement agency until 2001, when it was replaced by the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
UDR: Ulster Defense Regiment, a British Army unit established in 1970 and stationed in Northern Ireland to provide a permanent protective force, fulfilling duties deemed outside the RUC’s mandate. The UDR was disbanded in 1992.