It’s far too easy to go to war these days. Though we all see the pictures, hear the debates, get told how the bombs work, watch the people crying, maybe even see some hard hitting pictures of dead bodies, it never seems like we’re personally involved…. just another set of pictures on the television set when we get home from work, an abstract of a world that doesn’t appear to bear any relation to the one we live in. There are no bombs in my backyard, just a bit too much rain. Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of debate going on, but it is nearly all buried in modern political babble, the kind that uses many fine sounding words to say nothing of substance. It’s no wonder that election turnouts are so low, and no wonder that political apathy pervades most young people. There was a time when we’d look to music to offer up songs of vitriol and satire. There was a time when artists like The Clash, The Specials and Elvis Costello would produce songs ridden with biting criticism and satire…but todays is the era where the only issues musicians deal with are issues of self-obsession, the era when the self-proclaimed most controversial artist in town spends their shock-laden, expletive-ridden time merely protesting about the difficulties of being a pop star.

Here’s a thought. How about we round up a few thousand people, mostly from Iraq, with plenty of women and children , and a few American men thrown in there as well, we give Mr. George W. Bush a pistol and a few thousand rounds of ammunition, and tell him that if he kills every one of those people, then he may or may not depose mean old Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. I wonder if George Dubya would be able to look all those people in the eye and do it. I wonder if Tony Blair, if issued with a second pistol and ammunition, could stand alongside him and look those people in the eye and shoot them?

Let’s dispense with euphemisms like ‘Military Action’... War is about killing. Lots and lots of killing, senseless killing, premeditated killing, random killing, accidental killing. There is nothing good about killing. I know that, you know that, they know that. No matter what the reason, killing someone, killing anyone makes the world one little bit more grim. Even if somebody got executed for doing a despicable thing, while an individual’s self-righteousness might think of it as a victory, for our collective soul it is always a failure.

There is nothing glorious in apathy. However far your head may be stuck up the ass of your little world of immediate friends, the fact is when Tony Blair says he wants to help Dubya kill people in Iraq, he is representing you, because he was elected to do so. If you don’t like it, then maybe you should make some noise.Every newspaper has a letters page, every MP and minister can be written to at the address: (Name of MP), House Of Commons, London SW1A 1AA, and lots of little noises adds up to an almighty racket.