i am going to make a shameful 'confession': my support for a non-military resolution of the current iraq situation has been wavering in the past couple of weeks.


now, now... stop gasping and making indignant noises, for that wavering has stopped. i have decided that i am, afterall, against the warmongering of the american and british cabinet. i probably won't be marching on saturday, as i will be busy doing nothing, as always on a weekend. but i am there in spirit and in name since i signed a petition for the stop the war coalition last july while waiting for a friend outside camden town station. so stop pulling faces, please.


there were reasons for my wavering. not everyone who believes in military action is as mad as some may think. the main reasons they put forward are: (1) we must not do anything to undermine the authority of the U.N. in dealing with serial transgression of U.N. resolutions; (2) the iraqi opposition groups, including the kurds, desperately need the miltary might of external states to replace saddam hussein; (3) once we allow rogue states to build up arms, we will have a repeat of the situation that occurred with the collapse of the u.s.s.r. - radicals and terrorists find themselves all the loot, holding our security to ransom by means of devices such as dirty bombs.


i'd say these are all pretty compelling reasons. but then, think of the main reasons against this war - (1) this is a divide that will not heal, casting the christian west against the islamic middle east forever, in effect guaranteeing further future conflict; (2) this is a country that is already devastated and exhausted by the sanctions and human rights abuses that have been inflicted on its people; (3) in accordance with our ever fragmenting and fluid society, we have questions about whether there is ever a 'just war'.


so don't think of this an easy thing - it's not just a question of black or white. although i'm sure that you, like me, wavered once or twice when thinking about it all. come to think of it, i may have to rethink this matter again, just to be sure.


"Bless me Father, for I have sinned. It has been thirty minutes since my last confession."

"Twelve Our Fathers and Ten Hail Marys for you, my child."