In a democratic nation, there is no excuse for terrorism. From Northern Ireland, to Israel, to Oklamhoma City, terrorists have attempted to subvert democracy. In the Basque Country, the situation is no different. In Egypt they are still at the beginning of the process, Sinn Fein believes that the end may be in sight for it. The strategy has served as a template for the movements that brought Archbishop Makarios to power in Cyprus, Yasser Arafat to the presidency of Palestine and Jomo Kenyatta to found Kenya.
Freedom fighters are terrorists who have won.
Had the Chechens blown up railway stations and public parks in Moscow and St Petersburg, instead of fighting their astonishingly brave insurgency war back at home at the cost of tens of thousands of their people and their capital Grozny, they would probably have won their freedom sooner. For victory, terrorist organisations must enjoy the support, or at least the tacit connivance, of the majority of the population. In Egypt, as in Ulster, that will not be the case. So like the Shining Path guerrillas of Peru, or the American militias, or the Basque Eta movement, they might be able to cause misery and mayhem for years, but they will not ultimately win. Terrorism will doubtless raise consciousness and create a backlash, but because the great majority of Egyptians are not fundamentalists and the majority of Ulstermen do not want a united Ireland, the terrorists will not ultimately prevail.