I've listened to the song but, while not over impressed by this version, I don't regard it to be such a big issue. It's true that the meaning and overall feel of the song has been changed from "angry" to "sad" by the musical arrangements and omission of the last verse.

However, this song has been the subject of abuse and butchering for as long as I can remember. It is frequently sung as a boozy sing along song in pubs throughout the world and I don't believe that many of the drunken punters ever bother to listen to half the words anyway or think about them long enough to consider the true meaning of the song. So, in these situations, it makes no real difference whether all the verses are there or not.

As for the deliberate sanitising of the song, I won't argue that this wasn't the case. Quite probably. However, songs get truncated and altered all the the time (Only folkies want to actually add verses!). So, this isn't that unusual in itself.

I agree that we should respect Eric Bogle's own views on the matter. He certainly has some reservations but is certainly not as uptight as many of the posters here.