Being Governed By The Basest Of Instincts

Tony Benn was right in 1991 when speaking of the Iraq war and his comments are just as right and relevant this weekend as America once again makes war and brings death to innocents. Iran may well be a dreadful state with terrorist links, Trump and Netanyahu may well feel they have a strong case for their actions but war is not and can never be the solution; in short it is an admission of the failure of mankind to reason, to talk, to try to understand others and incontrovertible evidence that mankind is governed by the basest of instincts - to kill to get what he wants. Even if I accept the argument that Iran and its leaders had to brought to justice I cannot condone America and Israel's war - and for one simple reason. Iran might well be a threat, they might well sponsor terrorism but if we in the west are to have any moral justification we have to be better than that. If we are not then when he sends our drones and our missiles we are no better than the terrorist acting on Iran's orders.

This would abhorrent, immoral and unjustifiable even if it carried out on the orders of a responsible president following the best advice from America's greatest minds. As it is, what we are seeing is the death and destruction of mostly innocents, a world stepping several steps nearer to the precipice, and all promoted and carried out on the orders of arguably the world's two greatest madmen playing a nightmare game of brinkmanship and terror for their own distorted ends. Trump and Netanyahu claim that this action is justifiable - I trust, therefore, that both of these gentlemen will be travelling to Iran in the next day or two to lay flowers at the graves of the innocents killed by their drones and missiles. And that they hug, empathise with, and explain the moral and political justice of their actions individually to each and every one of the mothers of dead children, and the families of dead brothers, sisters, wives, husbands and grandparents and say why their loved ones had to die or suffer such treatment; surely these "great leaders" could and will do no less - it's called being human.

Sadly, I won't hold my breath on that one, but it is what should happen, for if it doesn't it tells us much about the immorality of Trump and Netanyahu and. the justification for their actions. The peoples of the USA and Israel should be ashamed of what they have wished upon the world.