The First Casualty

I was shocked to hear President Bush saying he was inspired to visit 'a free and democratic Iraq'. What freedom?!! And what has this so-called democracy done for the ordinary Iraqi?

I have just read a marvellous fiction book (The First Casualty by Ben Elton) about a war in the past, this time the First World War or, as they had hoped, the war to end all wars. What soldiers had to endure over those four years for just a few metres of ground is unbelievable. I would like to share one quote -

'Brutality, it was clear, had a cumulative effect on the people who perpetrated it and on those who witnessed it, numbing their senses to decency, until in the end it was difficult to remember what decency was.' T