And you’re right about the cannon-fodder in World War I. More people died needlessly in six years than had ever died in war before PERIOD, and the fact became true again in the second world war. But then, Bono’s Irish–and the Irish have been facing a state of apathy and hate for longer than any other single race except for the Jews. I think you can understand if an Irish man is especially upset over the fate of the Irish soldiers. In fact, the record shows that Irish troops were given front-line duty in preference to English ones. But I digress….

Of all types of violence, it has always been religious conflict that has been the most bitter. Who can say why the Brits REALLY went to Ulster in the first place…there are two sides to nearly every story. It ought to be enough just to lay down the weapons of war, and to try to live in peace.

In the end, this is the message of “Sunday, Bloody Sunday.” Violence begets sorrow, death, continued violence and loss. If, instead, there could be peace and brotherhood, everyone will gain. There will be happiness, community, and love. Just…stop fighting. Could there be any message more simple? Bono didn’t think so. Neither do I.

Peace.

SASS has Spoken.

–the SASS Man

BTW: The Irish weren’t the only ones used as cannon fodder during World War One – all sides wasted their working classes in that meatgrinding waste of a war – English, Irish, French, German, Italian, Russian, etc, were all sacrificed in that moronic war. It seems to have been the Americans, arriving in the closing months, that had the sense to crawl along the ground, rather than slowly walking across it, in the face of machine guns. I guess they learned something from their own Civil War experience, with the trenches, barbed wire, gatling guns, and heavy cannon. Perhaps the US could have used its own U2 back in 1865?

One final thing – the British Army was actually sent to Ulster in the late 1960s not to oppress, but rather to PROTECT the catholics. It was the IRA that started fighting and forced the army to fight back and restore the peace.

Then again, we’re living in an age where good acting is often pre-opted for sophisticated special effects.

But then, it isn’t Gene Roddenbery we have to blame for that…it’s George Lucas.

– the SASS Man

However, my problems with Star Trek, began with the movies: particularly “Wrath of Khan,” where it seemed that the writers pretty much threw away everything in the depth and canon, in order to try to compete with Star Wars– as proven when Khan became a raving one-dimensional villain, hoisted Chekov one-handed, just like Vader did with Captain Antilles. Here, it was proven that Star Wars space-flight is far superior to that of Star Trek, since the Falcon was able to come out of hyperspace at the exact point where Alderaan was supposed to be, and spotted the planet missing immediately, and knew it was destroyed– but meanwhile in Star Trek, the Reliant wasn’t even able to tell that an entire planet was missing from the Ceti star system, and the orbits were shifted along with everything else!
Likewise, shields were so weak that they didn’t work in a nebula, sensors didn’t function, shields were pretty useless overall, etc– and, insult of insults, irony of ironies, Khan proved one-dimensional LITERALLY, as Kirk ended up beating him, by the brilliant move of going UP, and letting Khan pass him in the fog that was the plot.
And it just went downhill from there: STIII simply reversed everything that STII accomplished, but traded in the Enterprise for a Klingon ship, of all things; then it became the USS GreenPeace saving the whales, finding God with space-hippies, and then finally they had Kirk SURRENDERING TO KLINGONS in order to SAVE A TREATY.
And then they wonder how they got Picard to be such a wimp?

So basically, you have Star Trek pre-TWOK and post-TWOK: i.e. mankind’s future based on science and moral depth, vs. preachy sensationalism and hooey.

Again, great essay, and I appreciated all of the linkages between all of the Bloody Sundays.

– the SASS Man

Just a little clarification… that’s all
Cheers,