Reply #91: Yes, it is a BFD. Pity you don't see that.

[Mairead]

All we know from that article is that he and his friend died. They might have died by accident--it's not Park Avenue over there even today. They might have been killed by accident. They might have been killed intentionally. Or they might have died separately, in different ways. We don't know. It's Really Important that we don't know. That ignorance is, yes, a genuine Big Fscking Deal. So your flat declaration was 100% unsupported, and your 'probably' is 90% unsupported. We don't know what the probability is, and that Dr Dean thinks it's high cuts no ice, because he doesn't know either. Of course 'murdered by the Commies' sounds much more dramatic and poignant (those rotten Commies!) than 'became sick and died', 'wasn't watching where he was going, fell into a river, and drowned', 'was bitten by a poisonous snake and died', 'was blown up by a Green Beret booby trap', 'insulted a local woman and was killed by her outraged relatives' or something else, but the fact of the matter is that we don't know anything more than that he died. The article doesn't even say he was in Commie custody at the time of his death (though it seems to imply he wasn't).

So please, don't try to con us or guilt-trip us or anything else--you haven't the wherewithal.