- Location
- Northern Ireland
These things must be kept firmly in context. It's only right that a judgement of disproportionate force was delivered. Governments and their security forces should of course be subject to scrutiny. It's also important for it to be said that the victims were undeserving of death. In the absence of compelling evidence as to their involvement in paramilitary activity of immediate threat to the soldiers, then the law must find them innocent.
However, the context is that there was a very violent situation, perpetrated by rioters and paramilitaries. The handling by forces clearly delivered a very poor result. In this case, there were no army casualties. The IRA missed. If they hadn't missed, would the judgement against the army have been less confident I wonder? Either way, it wouldn't have changed much of the army response on the day. The driving reason behind the heavy response was the real threat the army perceived against itself. And this, as was seen also with the bloody Sunday incident, is the reason why it's not a good idea to involve army in violent public order situations. Army are presumably trained to meet force with greater force, and to protect their squad at all costs. To return fire and ask questions later. This works well in a war zone, which ballymurphy was not. They were asked to take gunfire and petrol bombs in a housing estate, and people are surprised that it didn't end well?
However, the context is that there was a very violent situation, perpetrated by rioters and paramilitaries. The handling by forces clearly delivered a very poor result. In this case, there were no army casualties. The IRA missed. If they hadn't missed, would the judgement against the army have been less confident I wonder? Either way, it wouldn't have changed much of the army response on the day. The driving reason behind the heavy response was the real threat the army perceived against itself. And this, as was seen also with the bloody Sunday incident, is the reason why it's not a good idea to involve army in violent public order situations. Army are presumably trained to meet force with greater force, and to protect their squad at all costs. To return fire and ask questions later. This works well in a war zone, which ballymurphy was not. They were asked to take gunfire and petrol bombs in a housing estate, and people are surprised that it didn't end well?