Counter-terror expert fears Trump assassination bid makes Northern Ireland-style Troubles violence more likely in America
An author and researcher into terrorism in America has voiced concern that the attempt to kill Donald Trump will serve to make Troubles-style violence more likely in the USA.
Jacob Ware made the remarks after the ex-president survived a shooting attempt at a rally on Saturday, which left a bystander dead and at least two others wounded.
The gunman was also killed.
Mr Ware is fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, an extremely influential think-tank in New York which publishes the journal Foreign Affairs.
It also published a recent book of his called “God, Guns, and Sedition: Far-Right Terrorism in America”, wirtten with co-fellow Bruce Hoffman.
Mr Ware summarised a recent piece they had penned for CNN as follows: the United States “is probably not on the verge of civil war”, they believe, but “a version of Northern Ireland’s Troubles is more likely”.
In the wake of Saturday’s shooting, Mr Ware told the News Letter: “Bruce and I have suggested that predictions of civil war in the United States are far-fetched, in large part due to geographic distinctions in this country between would-be warring parties being urban-rural, rather than the north-south split that facilitated the secessionism of our civil war.
"We have identified the Troubles as a more likely model, where violence would be longer-term, defined by sustained and widespread violence, perpetrated by multiple factions against both civilian and government targets.
"This shooting will rip Americans into even further divided camps, that will entrench with different information realities and redouble their suspicion of the other.
"Conspiracy theories will flourish… the combination of polarization, a rising tolerance for violence, widespread gun ownership, and a law enforcement apparatus spread dangerously thin all make the likelihood of Troubles-style violence greater.”