Dear All JMDL-ers.
I sit here, stunned, amazed, and humbled at the incredible and admirable
lengths to which the contributors to this particular subject,(JUST WAR) are
so cogently able to make their many, varied and valid points.
What strikes me about all of this terrible situation, and the horrendous
other attrocities that are being committed throughout the world,.. or are in
the process of being planned to take place... is that each involved party,
whether pro or contra that particular situation, manage to argue their
various points with a passion that is amazing to behold.
We are all only humans. I made the point in my first mail to the list about
a man called Satish Kumar. He made a point to me, in our conversation, that
the powerful people in this world, each and every one of them is "only a
human". George Bush, Saddam Hussein, Tony Blair, Putin, you name any of the
heads of state in this planet, they are only human and only men... just as
powerful women are only women. They have, as we do, all the foibles and
failings of us less famous people, they have come to power because they
sought it, and (at least where voting is almost certainly run properly) put
into power because they are believed in by a voting populace... they are
also manipulated by other humans would like to be in power and who place
their own schemes in front of the men with the pens to sign and the buttons
to push.
I think it was Plato who said (and forgive me if I am wrong) that the very
people who seek public office are exactly the people who should not have it.
and that becomes more and more evident as this world turns ever closer to
yet another conflict... there is no one answer as to what this "JUST WAR"
is about but the words "SPIN DOCTORS" rise up in my mind very quickly....
hidden agendas and corporate greed are other words that hover on the edges.
There is not one politician I would ever vote in to office and I try to
avoid politics.
However I live in a heaveily naval town and have seen the boats sailing out
to see, the newly aommandeered merchantmen (ships) hanging about doing
manoevres with landing craft two minutes from my house, and the very very
empty moorings in the harbour where 4 days ago the ARK ROYAL was waiting
(heavily draped to avoid prying eyes). I feel sick to the core of my being
to think of any nation losing its men and women to battle.
Each and every politician who is allied to the BIG NAMES has sent us to this
flashpoint and I do not know how to tell my 11 year old daughter how it is
that we are heading to conflict or actually the reasons why... Reading the
amazing viewpoints on the list has made me think about it so much more
deeply than I have ever thought about world conflict before.
And however much the points are argued, however much the cases are cogently
put, do any of us truly feel that this is a JUST WAR? There are too many
lies, twists, misinformations and hidden agendas for this ever to be a JUST
WAR... I apologise to any who lost relatives in the Twin Towers and whom my
viewpoint may offend but there has to come a point where belief is suspended
and a very long hard look at who has got what to gain from any conflict in
the Gulf.
I apologise for not quoting endlessly from everyone's mails but I am not
equal to the task of arguing point for point. this mail is my gut feel. I am
prompted to end with this late 50's early 60's anti-war poem, I do not know
who wrote it but a friend copied it to me some years ago.......
If night should come sooner than we thought it might
remember that I loved you.
Not, I grant, a love that sacrifices truth or light
but still a love that leant the world a heart
on some warm secret hillside in the night.
We all of us have so much humanity to lose.
Lucy
