probably preaching to the choir, but

I haven't written anything at all about the forthcoming war in Iraq, mainly because I haven't felt well enough recently to get into stressful arguments about my opinions. But my view is very simple: I want Saddam Hussein (and Robert Mugabe, and all the other dictators in the world) to stop torturing people. Preferably I'd like them out of power altogether and replaced with a democratically-elected government, but just stopping the torture would be better than nothing. However, what I don't see is how us (the British, the US, whoever) going in and killing a load of innocent Iraqis (or Zimbabweans) is going to improve the lives of people in those countries. It's definitely not going to improve the lives of the ones who get killed (!), and how will it do anything to get rid of their dictators? Presumably Saddam (and Mugabe, and co) will spend the war sitting safely in their underground bunkers, while the citizens that they couldn't care less about get massacred. If anything, the dictators'll probably be pleased to have a few more thousand of the people they don't like get killed without them even having to do anything!

Yes, I know this is all very simplistic - but it's not my job to know all the ins and outs of international politics. It's the job of my elected representatives: to find the best solution to all these problems while still representing the views of the people. It only becomes up to me to write about my opinions in detail when I feel they're no longer doing that.

Salient points from djm4 and Robin Cook's resignation speech. I agree with everything in that speech - and he does know what he's talking about.