But recognising that in no way "disrespects" those who died in that belief or that hope.

I disagree. It's both disrepectful and patronising to address historical hindsight and hippy revisionism to a casualty of an admittedly unpleasant circumstance, but one who nevertheless gave his life in very good faith. War to end wars? Very nearly, if one views the events of the first half of the 20th century as a continuity culminating in the development of the atomic bomb, which has kept the international 'peace' for nigh-on 70 years.

I take it you are not suggesting all war is necessary?

War is integral to human nature & culture, as might be demonstrated by a grance through the history books and a casual analysis of the actual nature of aforementioned 20th / 21st Century 'peace' - and a consideration of the price we've had to pay for it. That said, I shudder to think how things might have been if a) Nazi Germany had developed the bomb first or b) if it hadn't been developed at all.

I must admit, I'm torn on this one. Part of me is still the old green-punk anarcho-peacenik who once marched to Sun Ra's anthemic hip-hop inspired Nuclear War, yet part remains the cynical realist for whom The Groundhogs' folk-acoustic blues Thank Christ For the Bomb still rings true to this day. Would that things were ever so simple, eh?

Mostly though, my gripe is with folkies dissing Hip-Hop, which is of infinitely greater musical, artistic, human, cultural, historical & commercial relevance than Folk will ever be. It's also about having had to put up with being preached at by these two Eric Bogle songs for the last nigh on 40 years when all I ever wanted in a folk club was to drink beer, smoke fags and bask in the hearty glow of a bunch of revivalist traddies singing Traditional Folk Songs & Ballads. The Medium is the Message. I have the same gripe with a good number of such songs actually - and artists - but this is neither the time nor the place.   

It's also not a tantrum, just a bit blether to pass a cheery half-hour's procrastination over more pressing matters to which I must now, alas, address myself as my deadline looms...