Just reading Bandit Country now, and anyone who thinks the British didn't act with kid gloves in NI is sorely mistaken. Aside from a brief period when the SAS was let off the chain and then firmly put back on it again, the British were remarkably restrained.
If Slab Murphy had been an Afghan, within two years one of two things would have happened, a patrtol would have "taken fire" from his farm and then a JDAM would have been dropped on it and the remaining buildings turned into a patrol base, or a hit squad of JSCO operators would have canoed him and his brothers at 4AM in the morning one night.
Instead he was pretty much allowed to run South Armagh as a private fiefdom for like 30 years. The only time he did in jail was like 6 months for smuggling after the ceasefire.