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On this one thing, most people are agreed -
we are against war. Even those of us who have no personal
experience of it know of its horrors and terrors. That was
pointedly illustrated when the anti-war demonstrators had
a very large representation of school children. While we remember
and honour those who went to war - our freedom was their sacrifice
- we see war as a last resort and only in exceptional circumstances
like when there is a Hitler and Saddam Hussein who threaten
the world. The anti-war demonstrations were to be expected
- the effects of war on innocent people in Iraq are shocking
to the eye and an assault on the senses of people who have
pity for the sufferers, and some of them will be forces personnel,
sons and daughters, husbands and fathers of our own people.
The saturation media coverage of the war means that everything
to do with it has been or is being said. Suffice here to add
a comment apropo the occasional reference to Northern Ireland
and the different British, American and Irish government attitudes
to violence and terrorism here. There is the question - is
it not strange that there were no demonstrations when Northern
Ireland was under attack from an IRA that murdered, maimed,
injured and bereaved many of our citizens? The response in
counter-attack meant that other innocent people were made
to suffer terribly and permanently. The situations, there
and here, are not comparable except that the results in death
and destruction are remarkably similar. We, experienced as
we are, pray anxiously and in anticipation that the war in
Iraq qill give that country the freedom from fear, want, despair
and the peace and prosperity it needs so much. There is also
agreement on this - we all want these basic human rights.
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