Morven wrote:The Tauren being Horde gives the lie to the "horde = evil/nasty" story Alliance players like to tell themselves, that's for sure

I am not sure if you are just being provocative with this statement, trying to start a discussion about the perception of “good” or “evil”, or if you state it just in jest, but I will assume you meant what you wrote and did so to start a discussion on the matter.
I find this statement to be wrong in every sense of the word.
Let me explain what I mean.
First, I find the idea of “good” and “evil” to be labels that should be more akin to actions or statements that are extremely “acceptable” or “unacceptable.” I do not believe in “good” or “evil” in the supernatural sense, which of course is outside of nature, and as such cannot be in the natural world, which in-turn means that that it does not and cannot exist in the world.
For it to affect the natural world it must exist in some sense in this plane of existence and as such is natural (but enough about my view on the “supernatural”).
Specific statements or actions can be considered one or the other, but labeling a person, a group of people or an entire nation as “good” or “evil” to be overly simplistic, divisive, and factional.
Second, the Alliance has been guilty of as many atrocities as the Horde has been during both of the wars, and occasionally during “peace time” aka “cessation of hostilities” or whatever.
If anything the Alliance is guilty of more, because of their continued persecution of the orcs even after the knowledge that they were enslaved and forced to do the actions that they did at the time of their aggression towards their world. Not to mention their enslavement, etc.
They have also been quite stingy with their resources cutting off trade to the Horde with full knowledge what the consequences would be for the citizens of the Horde (starvation, etc).
Yes, what happened to the herbalist was horrible but they made unreasonable demands of Thrall with full knowledge that he would not be able to do what they demanded (public apology, turning over the citizens responsible for the attack to the Alliance, etc).
In essence they cut of trade and made it so Thrall would have to grovel to get the trade of food and lumber from Ashenvale open again. Of course Thrall refused, as any leader of any nation would, and then left to Outland trying to save the entire planet leaving the escalating situation in Gorrosh’s hands. Yes, he should have picked another leader but considering the situation Gorrosh actually did pretty good.
It is this selfishness that drove Gorrosh to invade Ashenvale, because the people of the Horde were suffering with little to eat. This was because most of the resources had been used in fighting and defeating the Lich King. Of course this was also due to droughts in the area at the time, but the Alliance was well aware of this and had resources to spare but instead chose not to help.
While the Horde may be responsible for many deaths with this latest round of aggression it was the Alliance that drove them to it. And in the end the Alliance is more responsible for this outcome than the Horde.
Although both sides have been guilty of atrocities, labeling one side of this conflict as evil, whether you view it as the Horde or the Alliance is an overly simplistic and obtuse way of examining the events that have transpired.
The blame lies with both parties, and neither is good or evil, but in my opinion more blame lies with the Alliance with this particular conflict.
Just my musings on the matter as I have only read three of the books so far.