My point is that you might have a very different perspective had you been in the military in NI during the troubles.
Many on mainland UK had simply no idea how widespread the violence was because it rarely made the evening news there.
I was horrified how little was reported on my visits home from the Province.
We had a regular morning met and Ops brief when the NIREPs (reports of the violence) were read out - it was a daily litany of bombings, shootings, kneecappings, culvert bombs and other IEDs, mortar attacks etc etc etc.
Now imagine being a British serviceman in NI - I did 2 years there btw - constantly under threat at work or away, from targeting - we had a number of direct attacks on our helicopters in my time with some miraculous escapes and near misses.
Spend a couple of years looking over your shoulder constantly and always dropping your keys 'accidentally' to check under your car for booby traps.
I have flown in to pick up the pieces of RUC - NI policemen FFS - blown to bits by the IRA, just imagine the outcry if that happened in UK (witness the ISIS bred attacks in London. Imagine how you would feel if British bobbies were being attacked and, once in a while, managed to get a shot off in defence.
Terrorists were good at manipulating the press then, it's not a new phenomenon.
The spectre of Bloody Sunday is always rolled out when blaming British servicemen for deaths in NI but conveniently forgotten are the hundreds of innocents that died at the hands of the IRA - for which many were given a free pass.
Leave those who were serving their country in very difficult conditions alone and take your moral high ground elsewhere.
Thank you for your excellent words.
I too served in NI and wanted to respond to our
melmothtw's comments but, truth be told, I would probably have been banned for some of what I wished to say.