[Romantic Old Bird]

No attack Lee, we are in a free country, can speak our minds and I am incredibly thankful for that.

HOWEVER......here are my feelings>

I am diametrically opposed to war, and most especially so on the dubious grounds which are being put forward so forcefully by Dubbya.

I greatly fear we are being led headlong into conflict by a man who has found the one thing which could give him national support and popularity, and a cohesiveness with the people of the nation he 'serves'.

This man would have been barely treading water (politically speaking) without, dreadful as they were, the events of 11.9.01.

He came into office with a monumentally poor grasp of foreign affairs and in early interviews (ie those where carefully worded responses had not been prepared for him by speech-writers) he committed numerous appalling faux pas about other countries. Under the spotlight of the world stage, he was exposed as absolutely clueless about non-domestic matters.

Even when Sept 11th happened, he was conspicuously absent initially whilst Clinton and Rudi Guiliani leant succour to the people.

Then he came blinking out of the safety of his nuclear bunker into a climate of wounded patriotic fervour to find a nation united by anger and despair, and astutely grabbed his opportunity.

He couldn't just 'Go get' Osama Bin Laden. This man was a pimpernel-like figurehead who is/was if anything more powerful in legend than in fact.

Never mind even the fact that in the unlikely event that they did find and destroy this man, this very act would make him immortal and omnipotent.

Such an event would unite so many disparate people across the globe, and Al Queda would benefit even more than it already had from the paranoia and fear exhibited by western 'decadent' powers.

President Bush may as well have sent his knights out to find the Holy Grail.

Having given up on that one for now, his eyes turned back to Iraq.

I can almost hear the train of thought......

'Say, aren't they Muslims as well? Got to be something going on in there. Damned hot bed of anti American activity. My Daddy never did want to let go of that one in 92. Let's get 'em'.'

The whole weapons inspection process is of no interest to GWB. Even if they had a full and frank confession or a believable clear slate, he would be going in.

Of course they have weapons of mass destruction. Most nations in the world do, and anyway, we sold them the parts, we facilitated the technology, took the money, thankyou very much.

And then there is the oil issue.

As we found out in the Ricin incident, not a lot of anything is needed to cause terror and havoc anyway. The world is too open, too accessible to prevent the movement of people intent on doing harm. 50 years ago one shot at Ghandi brought about massive change, and 90 years ago one shot at Arch Duke Ferdinand led to the mindless sacrifice of countless millions.

Today one hand grenade on a plane could do even more damage. But you can't strip search every traveller.

Hatred and distrust motivate and unite. They engender the belief that your cause is just, and further isolate you from your perceived enemies.

These forces are unstoppable. They do not recognise boundaries or high security alerts, they are not deterred by fear.

THEY are what we should be trying to prevent.

To those who ask 'Yes, but look at what appeasement did in 1938!' I say, 'What if Bush were to prove to be the next Hitler instead?'

I know it seems far fetched, but Hitler did bring improvement in the lives of the vast majority of the German people. They saw their fortunes change for the better, and they felt their national pride restored.

That theory would make Mr Blair (whose determined support in the face of overwhelming opposition is starting to worry me a lot) into Mussolini. Which is a shame, because I think he feels passionately that his actions are right. He is evidently greatly troubled and bemused by our nation's opposition to war.

I am sorry I didn't march yesterday. I suppose the excuse that we were at a friend's wedding isn't good enough, given the enormity and gravity of this issue.

I did march in the 80's in something perhaps half as big, with CND. I was younger, and still felt we were able to make our voice heard, and stop nuclear proliferation.

I think it did play a part, but what really broke down the barriers was moving closer in matters of consumerism and trade. Globalism.

We suddenly were able to look at each other and realise that we are largely the same beasts as our old iron curtain enemies. We all want the goodies, and we want them now.

Conversely, we do not appear to have very much in common with extreme Islamic fundamentalists. They are willing to take out what they see as an insurance on the next life, and this life is pretty expendable.

Everything we are doing is pushing us further apart. Nothing is helping us understand each other.

The vast majority of those in the world of Islam and the 'west' are motivated by peace and want to live in harmony.

However this gung ho, 'Bomb the Bastards' behaviour, this paranoia and distrust will only make extremists of more and more people who feel helpless and threatened.

I know I could be completely wrong, but it is how I feel.

In the end, if we are able, we will still have to sit down and, as peachy quoted in the words of that old war-monger Churchill, 'jaw, jaw'.

Now, in the words of Forrest Gump

'that's all I've got to say about that.'