Amen, CH4 proved this back in 1997, and they were at the time a very left-wing channel, hardly army-friendly. Clear evidence the IRA fired first from the Bogside. Photo evidence of IRA men with handguns in the Bogside. Catholic bogsiders all saying the first shots came from BEHIND them.
from the article:
“The inquiry, led by Lord Saville, took 12 years to complete and exonerated those who died.
It concluded that soldiers fired the first shot and gave no warning before opening fire on the civilian marchers.
The Saville Report also found that some of those killed or injured were clearly fleeing or going to help the injured and dying.”
So, it doesn’t say “without provocation” but does say without warning.
Like I said, “if it is true, as the article says”....b/c I haven’t done my own investigation, I am reluctant to take a strident position here. I’m just saying, “if it is true” then ....certain conclusions have to follow.
Part of the difficulty of talking about anything in Northern Ireland is that thousands of people made careers out of an essentially Manichaean view of one side or the other, which is ludicrous. I am Protestant to the core, but I have no stake in the whole awful history of Northern Ireland in modern times. But I can see that it is not helpful to say that if you blame the soldiers in this context, you are an IRA lackey. That’s precisely the mindset that the UVF and IRA exploited and which perpetuated the whole thing, where close to 4,000 people died for essentially ...nothing. (Good Friday simply put into place what Thatcher had wisely proposed decades before).
Nor does being open to the idea that the army is to blame do injustice to the context. Yes, other soldies (and civilians) had been lawlessly killed/terrorized...obviously this is the case. But as soldiers, they are called to a higher level of professionalism. It seems possible that they failed, and that several deaths resulted.
And certainly there is no statute of limitations on this sort of thing, any more than there should be a statute of limitations on other state crimes such as under communism.
In any event...the article didn’t say “without provocation”. That was my insertion. But it did say “without warning”.
Which brings us back to the modest point...IF the article is true....I don’t know, and I doubt that anyone at FreeRepublic actually “knows” the truth and the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, unless they have the mind of God. But IF the article is true....then an injustice was committed, and should be brought to the light of day.