At the height of the IRA threat at the end of the 1980s I was working on a multi-national NATO Air Base in West Germany (near the Dutch border). An American briefing team arrived to give a detailed security/anti-terrorism assessment to the personnel on base. They spent an hour detailing the activities of a terrorist group called the "RAF" much to the amusement of our NATO friends and ignored the IRA activities totally. Any questions? I introduced myself as an officer in the RAF and asked them about the killings of British personnel that had taken place in the local area over the past few weeks. "We do not consider the IRA to be a significant threat" was the American response - he quickly changed the subject when I added "Even with British Military personnel working here and British married quarters just outside the main gate?"