When is it right to draw a line under the past? That is the question that the British government is mulling as it proposes an amnesty for crimes committed in Northern Ireland during the 30 years of ambuscades, shootings, and bomb attacks known, with terse understatement, as “The Troubles.”

What began as a protest by the Catholic minority against rigged electoral boundaries and one-sided policing erupted into violence in 1969. British troops were sent to Northern Ireland to restore order and were initially welcomed by Catholics as a relief from the Protestant-dominated local security forces. But the soldiers soon became targets for IRA terrorists, beginning a cycle of killings.