I wish for peace

[tinyjo]

So, the war has started. They're killing people. Fabulous. I'll be going along to the protest in Carfax this evening (6pm), although I'm a little nervous - there'll be a lot of people there I expect. I hope it doesn't get out of hand (and a secret bad part of me hopes it finishes before Buffy, but I've set my video just in case) but I suppose there's no particular reason it should. I won't make it to London on Saturday - this is as big as I go - but at least I'll have been out there a little, adding my own tiny voice to the cry of "Not in my name". I know it won't make a difference, but I need to have said it.

Comments

[shepline.livejournal.com]

I echo your sentiments. I hope that it is as short as they said it would be, but I fear it won't be... What I can't understand is why Tony Blair is not listening to the majority of the country, and why a supposed socialist leader is aligning himself with a man who was never democratically elected to pursue what a war which is certainly morally and legally questionable?

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

What I can't understand is why Tony Blair is not listening to the majority of the country,

It's very close to not being the majority any more, apparently...

and why a supposed socialist leader is aligning himself with a man who was never democratically elected to pursue what a war which is certainly morally and legally questionable?

Because he thinks what he's doing is Right. After the past few days, I do genuinely believe that he thinks that. I'm even willing to conceed that the end he's going after is a Good Thing - it's just that the means used to get here have ended up being about the worst he could have chosen.

Two Good Mental Health Exercises

[applez.livejournal.com]

1) Switch off all media and live in a blackout for a few hours. Find a book, walk in the park, snuggle with your 'significant other.' I practised all those yesterday, and am feeling much better for it. I hope to do more after work today.

2) Join a public protest - equally good and cathartic. I would add the caveat that you should watch out for the overly emotional, the organised disrupters, and the anarchists who can make it a bad experience for all (specifically when the riot police move in).

My view on recent events:

1. I am a civil servant, which means implicitly or explicitly, I fundamentally believe in the rule of law. This war is illegal, it is outside the rule of law, it is 'the law of the jungle' as one UN ambassador mentioned.

2. It is vital that protestors get out there and make themselves seen and known. They won't affect a shift in policy, since the Bush administration is Determined and arguments of reason fall on their deaf religiously-charged ears. It does, however, break up a monolithic union behind a war, and eliminates the implicit validation of the war's instigator - and that I think is very important philosophically and politically - in the long run.

3. The opening of the war with a 40+ missile strike to 'remove the head' is all very nicely dressed up and coached, but fundamentally cannot change the reality that it is *political assassination.* Now every President is fair game, and the license has expanded beyond the normative nutcases who take pot shots at the White House every decade or so.

4. With the US, the most powerful and influential country in the world, acting in the lowest common denominator - I feel it brings the whole world low. There is no inspiration for Progress, only paranoia-fueled worry for yourself. I don't know whether to beseach the world to arm or disarm. Reason tells me the former has to happen, with terrible consequences for all.

5. There is some debate in the media about whether that truly was Saddam Hussein on TV after the bombings, or one of his body doubles. It may have been a double, but because of the thick glasses, I actually believe it was him...Saddam is well into his 60s, and without the benefit of cutting-edge medicine.

Also, I noticed that a lot of the Iraqi leadership that made speeches were cleanshaven ... makes me wonder whether Saddam has trimmed his moustache to hasten his escape or improve safety.

6. The footage of the Iraqi reaction to the first strikes is telling I think. Only half-a-dozen artillery pieces firing off ... a miniscule fraction of what we witnessed in 1991. It emphasises to me just how pitiful this war is, how it very much seems a 4th Punic War.