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Cheers to Jeers. When the army intervened two years ago, the Catholics of Londonderry and Belfast welcomed the soldiers with cheers and cups of tea. The army's first mission was to protect Ulster's 500,000 Catholics against raids staged by extremists within the 1,000,000-member Protestant majority. But the militant Provisional faction of the I.R.A. foresaw that provocation would breed repression, and repression would breed more militants. The "Proves" began sniping at the troops and the troops fired back; the army started making house-to-house searches and then interning suspects without charges or trials, a practice that touched off the current wave of violence. About 400 prisoners are now being held, and some of them claim that they have been tortured.
The Provos stand ready to terrorize moderate Catholics as well. A Belfast woman, mourning a son accidentally shot to death by soldiers, blames both "martial law" and "I.R.A. violence." But when she was asked whether her name could be used with such a statement, her husband quickly said: "For God's sake, don't do that. The Provos might blow the house up."
I.R.A. leaflets urge: "Hit the bastards hard and often. Get the tommy's tail between his legs and then drive your boot home to the third lace hole." Troops are spat at and sworn at by female vigilantes in language that makes tough sergeants blush, and young soldiers are taunted that their girls are being "screwed by the blackies" back home. Though some British units are one-third Catholic, a staff officer said: "By now, my chaps detest the Catholics."
By the standards of war, casualties have not been high. The army has lost 36 dead and 172 wounded this year; civilian deaths run to 76. That is partly because the army insists on a strategy of "minimum force." On a crowded street, soldiers may fire only when fired upon, only if they can see their attackers, and only in single shots. Every round must be accounted for in writing. The army claims that its troops have been fired on 1,363 times this year (and been the targets of 800 Molotov cocktails), but have fired back only 320 times.
The army's intelligence is improving, and in recent weeks has led to the capture of several senior I.R.A. leaders, including the gunmen believed responsible for shooting three Scottish soldiers on a lonely country lane outside Belfast last spring. Nonetheless, high officers say that it will take a good 18 months to neutralize the I.R.A. They do not expect "victory" in the military sense—only that the I.R.A. can be reduced to a "nuisance" that can be controlled by the police.
Despite the army's expectations, the gunmen keep striking back. Last week snipers shot down an 18-year-old signal corpsman strolling in a rural village and a 23-year-old corporal on patrol in Londonderry. In Belfast, just 50 yds. from a heavily guarded police station, four gunmen followed a pair of unarmed plainclothesmen into a liquor store, ordered the storekeeper to lie on the floor, and then machine-gunned the police to death.