At one time I would have totally agreed with you Dave.
I confess that when Apartheid collapsed in South Africa, my first thoughts were "Great - now they can get the bastards responsible for the Sharpville and Soweto massacres". I was somewhat outraged when the Peace and Reconcilliation committees were set up - until I tried to think my way through the alternatives.
I think in the end that we must be satified with letting history sort out the rights and wrongs - I doubt if any of us would be totally happy at the outcome.
Yes - it is tough on the families of the victims, but no one side has a monopoly of those.
I think we all have opinions of the causes of the Irish situation and how it was allowed to reach the stage it did in the second half of the 20th century, but short of continuing to slug it out...
I honestly can't think of one conflict in my lifetime in which one side or the other could claim to have acted blamelessly throughout.
Jim Carroll