"War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace" Saddam must do as the United Nations instructs. Bush may do as he pleases. Superpower logic. I'm sad, outraged, embarrassed, but mostly mad as hell. I find the slaughter of innocent people, whether they be American or Iraqi, to be a tragic thing. I just wanted it to be known that there are many, many people here in the U.S who believe regime change should begin at home. Peace, Jerry

My sentiments exactly. Thats the way most of us in Australia feel as well. I would personally like regime change to start at home.
Cheers

maybe changing the government of america on the policy on israel and palestinians conflict would make the world a better place!
 after world warII,palestine was a peacefull country with a minority of israelites and a couple of nomads wondering around the dessert.jews(israelites)being the worse hit by the war care of Hitler,where just left alone.then one day they had this crazy calling of all jews of the world should  converge on the land of honey and bread(unleaven bread of course)which is israel rite now.occupying palestine,pushing them back and making the palestines the minority of thier own country because of the great exodus.
  now palestine being a muslim country had the pity of thier muslim brothers and of course a couple of the muslim fanatics that blown out of proportion riding on the band wagon of the muslims are the lowest form human beings and that they should start rebeling against the so called infidels!!
  why won't the united nations declare palestine a state?why can't the americans keep the"police work of the world" to the united nations force?do the americans still need to prove something to the world?did the israelites really started this conflict we are suffering rite now?did anybody think abt. whats gonna happen to the third world countries?in terms of economy?
  is it maybe of a arms deal not abt. chem. arms?haven't we ever learned from lessons of the past?
   IF WE WANT PEACE,LET US BE PREPARED FOR WAR!!
this was a graffiti in one of the walls in ireland and its sad it seems we are heading to it!!

war is just an extension of politics, without which this world of ours would certainly be a totally different place

...wether we like it or not war has begun. the next best question would be: what can we do given the situation?  

Well Sponjah, as for myself, whenever, wherever I travel, I'm going to tell people I'm Canadian !

Tell them who you really are Jerry and let them know your feelings about Bush and his cronies. The American, British and Australian governments are hypocryticle in the way they accuse Saddam of all these so called crimes against humanity and his weapons of mass destruction. Firstly America and Britain both have weapons of mass destruction and pride themselves in having them. America used chemical weapons on its own troops and its allies during the Vietnam war in the form of defoliants and argue the point that it was necessary. Both these nations in their history have been aggressors and colonisers against smaller nations unable to defend themselves and they call this bringing democracy to the world. In the case of Australia we dont have a history of being an aggressor or a colonialist power but we have been guilty of dealing with the so called brutal regime of Saddam to the tune of more than a billion dollars a year in trade while maintaining the moral stance that sanctions should be enforced against Iraq. The reason Iraq is an impoverished nation is not entirely because Saddam has taken all the money for himself or his cronies but because of 12 years of UN sanctions militarily backed by the so called Coalition of the willing. The images I am seeing on the TV make me ashamed to be Australian. It is illegal to wage war on any nation that is not a threat to your country and by allowing this to happen now we are opening up a pandoras box giving free reign to America and its good friends to do whatever they like wherever and whenever they like in the world. The events of september 11 were disgraceful and should not be condoned by anyone but America, Britain and Australia have been supporting brutal regimes throughout the world who combined kill more people on a daily basis than unfortunately died in September 2001. Anyone who agrees with the stance the coalition of the willing is right and just will have the blood of millions on their conciense. I take my hat off to France, Germany, Russia and China for openly condemning the current acts of aggression and I hope they are not harassed or intimidated by others to change their stances. If Iraq did not have oil then we would not be invading them at the moment. There are far more brutal regimes in the world than Iraq and we are not doing anything to them in the way of freeing their peoples from the oppression we are only aiding that oppression by enforcing sanctions upon some or openly allying ourselves with others. This world is in a f@#@ed up mess and it is the doing of the so called democratic countries. Spend the money we waste trying to bomb the crap out of Iraq, Afganistanon and other lesser known countries on humanitarian aide throughout the world and we may find the world would be a much safer place.
Cheers

Bush Blair Howard have lost the plot. Its sad to call yourself a aussie now something we were proud of before.

Mabini Girl,you're right....I was thinking the other day how people ask "so where are you from?" and I always say "Australia" and I say it with pride cos I love this country and everything it stands for,but now it's kind of embarrassing.I now feel ashamed to come from a country that's hypocrisy ridden government is supporting such hideous notions!

But like Mark said to Jerry,we can't be hiding the fact that we are Australians or Americans or British just because our governments are f*cked up.For example out here,the majority of the Australian population didn't want to be involved with this war.There's been peace rallies almost every single weekend.I went to one today and the amount of people there just blew me away.Just everyone is so passionate about this not happening or at least not going any further.Just one single spineless little Bush sucking bastard whom we have to call our Priminister has chosen to go against the entire nation,what we as common people truely believe in and for that our whole country will have to pay for gods knows how long,just for one f$%kheads actions.

At the start of the week I heard one of the US Officials say "at the end of this week, sit in front of your tvs and watch the fireworks"...like we're supposed to get some light entertainment from watching innocent people being bombed and killed.

That statement for me,just put a stamp on the whole REAL importance and intentions of this war to the democratic countries involved......absolutely NOTHING to do with the prententious bullshit they spin to the people of the world.It's something that is totally driven by power,greed,money and hurt pride.Until somebody with power and good intentions comes along much like the leaders of France,Germany,China and Russia,the cycle will continue to go full circle

PEACE

I wasn't serious about the Canadian thing. I can say I'm proud to be an American against the war. And to think this all came about because we have a "president" who in fact, lost the election. It's pretty sad that more U.S. citizens were  outraged by Bill Clinton's not being able to keep his zipper up than are outraged by the current genocide taking place.

..i agree with all your resentments but looking at picture. war has begun and people are dying. its sucks to watch the war as it happens and yet we could nothing to stop it. we couldn't entirely blame bush and them allies yet we couldn't absolve saddam either. ..if we could only a settle the dispute by "toss coin" i could give away all the coins inside the piggy bank of my "pamangkin" for the war finish..
...peace y'all