The Pheasant, Wizard Award Winner Options

[Guest_Nina_*]

James

You are most welcome

Nina

[Guest_Toumai_*]

Hi James,

Sylvia, I don't think you're off topic - the poem is about violence and retaliation. (We may be past the critting punctuation stage, but not off topic).

Yes but it's Japan's fault.

No, it was their leadership's fault. Now, leadership is part and parcel of a country, but in the past when the 'wrong' leaders were in power and a nation went to war, only the soldiers were involved directly. (Okay, those at home starved and were taxed to hades, but that was it.)

Since WWII it is now possible to involve the entire population in a war. The citizens of Hiroshima - the grandmothers, the babies - had nothing to do with deciding to bomb Perl Harbour.

Any more than the Jewish children in the Lodsk (sp?) ghetto had anything to do with any fermentation against the Nazis.

All innocent. All murdered.

Modern warfare holds power over governments by threatening innocent people - it's like taking hostages.

911 is part of that: governments are now waking up to the fact that with modern weaponry and ideas small cells of terrorists can terrify a nation almost as much as a full scale war. At least in the latter you can threaten retaliation, but with Al Quaida (sp?) where does it come from?

The only way we can convince the world that we disagree with our leaders is to vote them out - but what a pitiful selction of choices we have - or use peaceful protest when they let the power or conspiracy-theories go to their heads. The anti-war rally before Iraq in the UK was huge.

I don't know what the answers are: it's impossible to un-invent the atomic bomb, now it has been developed. But, like Sylvia, I don't think that answers can ever be simple, and violence should always be last resort.

(Okay, James, as a mod, you can please delete this if it is too off topic, but if you do need to, pls PM it to Sylvia so she sees. Ta)

Best,
Fran