By the way, the Bloody Sunday Inquiry has a web site - check out the witness transcripts, the hearings, etc...especially Soldier 027.

Just watched the brilliant and painful Bloody Sunday - I nearly threw up. Honestly, it's so hard to believe that it actually happened in what was supposedly a civilized country. I've read Tim Pat Coogan's The Troubles - it's not like any of this was news to me. But watching it, a reconstruction of it...

The part that hit me, that just knocked me over, was when the paratroopers opened fire on a crowd running away. After that, I was in tears. How the fuck did the British allow this to happen? I don't care what rationalizations you make - even if you accept the argument that it was a result of overly-excited soldiers being thrown into a powder keg, which I don't, it's still unbelievable. If I'd been there, I'd've had a hard time not supporting the IRA after that. How can you blame them for distrusting the British after that?

Also - it reminds me that things like this still happen, at the orders of another supposedly civilized government, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. I'm not saying I support Hamas, not by a long shot - I'm a supporter of Israel, though not of the occupation. But the Palestinian civilians are in the same boat as the Catholics of Northern Ireland - subject to an unjust occupation and persecution. The difference is that Bloody Sunday was the worst moment in the Troubles, at least in terms of the British government killing civilians, while the Israeli goverment has killed so many more Palestinians.

Gah. I'm babbling. But I'm just sick right now. Fantastic and painful movie. See it.