Politics of Language (or, What I Learned From Ferdinand de Saussure)

A sentence from a report on the IRA ending its aremd struggle: Some 3,600 people died during Northern Ireland's 30 years of "Troubles," half of them killed by the IRA.

I say, what's this? Half the people in a violent struggle were killed by one side? Really? That's shocking.

In the Civil War, half the people were killed by the Union Army. What monsters!