Iraq denies that poison gas has ever been used against their citizens, and the best evidence supports them. Yet, the Western media continues to use this as justification for creating unfavourable public opinion in support of a planned attack, ostensibly to remove any possibility that Iraq might develop an arsenal of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.

The US has been drawn into the Israeli-Palestine conflict over a period of fifty plus years. The foreign aid and open support for the Israeli government, disregarding the rights of the resident Palestinians, is directly responsible for the instability in the world today. Rather than disengage from this land dispute, the US chooses to advocate the forceful (and violent) removal of any threat from the enemies they have named.

It is a foolish approach, one certain to end in a worldwide conflict. The reason is not complex. The main consideration is the distressing collapse in previously accepted rules of conflict. Whatever honour there may have been in mortal conflict has deteriorated in a policy of the total destruction of all infrastructure. All construction of civilisation is a target for destruction; roads, buildings, bridges, power stations, dams, hospitals, schools, and cultural facilities of every kind. The definition of 'enemy' is widened to include any living souls, which is tantamount to advocating murder of innocent civilians (genocide). The bombs are delivered by pilotless planes and guided rockets, and the the world is told that the targets are laser-marked to minimise collateral damage. Yet it is routinely noted that the missles are not so smart after all, and innocent victims are killed when the targets are missed. When the targets are hit, it often transpires that it was in error, and the target was a case of mistaken identity. A few days ago the intended target was a political person, who was actually miles away, but everyone in the vicinity of where the remote mechanical warriors thought he might be, was killed. "So sorry," sounds sadly stupid and slightly sadistic.

Such barbarity is not unique. Dropping bombs from high altitude at night onto population centers has become routine. What is unique is that these preemptive policies are now practised by people who were educated to admire ancient Greek and Roman ideals of virtue and justice, order and law. In the present circumstances there is a continuation of an element of theft, in which the un-surveyed lands of the indigenous population were unjustly appropriated as the fruits of exploration and colonisation. Under the pretext of installing a superior civilisation, the invaders claim a right to inject new societal schemes (and a new regime) that generally distribute the newly surveyed land among the members of the invader-colonisers.

This attitude of plunder continues in the world today, and land appropriation by force is still supported by people who know better. Killing all those who contest enforces the policy. Their resistance is used to brand them as savages and terrorists. The inevitability of a widening conflict is seen once there is recognition that natural right cries out against it. Nothing can camouflage what is clearly greed. The list of enemies is certain to grow, and the rate at which it grows is exponential. Slowly, the US is being isolated, together with Israel, as a nation that has fallen into a technological vortex. Spying is acceptable, in whatever form. Secret agents and men dressed as desert plants are placed behind every rock. Satellites that look into every nook and bathroom are considered important novelties. Cameras that can catch a smile a mile away are considered military equipment. Any electronic means of invading privacy are publicly supported, arguing that a fugitive might be caught, or a new threat unveiled. The human spirit rebels.

The rebellion will spread, and the present coalition of 'enemies' will eventually convert over the present friends of mechanical murder. Right is the best recruiting officer. Every effort to enlist allies to the cause of technology-turned-immoral generates increased nausea. The more the killing, the greater the violence, the greater will be the repulsive reaction. The Earth is threatened with complete destruction in the effort to "make America safe for democracy" (and it well may be), most moral people would rather accept the risk of death while resisting than acquiesce to tyranny, leaving their children to live under such monstrous precepts.

The American people have been duped into defending the Israeli land grab, and now find that what was once considered a noble defence of a new democracy has degenerated into a total denunciation of its founding principles. The irony is that the American taxpayer, who has funded the entire fiasco, and has invented a means to fly around the world to sample its quaintness, curiosities and exotic charm, now finds its government has declared them enemies, and as a result the American is tacitly unwelcome almost everywhere outside its own borders.

The events of September 11 draw attention to the distaste the world finds in the present US policy. Instead of acknowledging the criticism and taking remedial action, the US has decided to lower its head and make an angry charge into the unknown wastes of war and carnage. This policy will certainly destroy the china, the shop, and the bull. Osama bin Laden was wrong if he is responsible for the various acts he is accused of, but that does not mean he is wrong in his evaluation and critique of the situation in the Middle East. The US is quick to denounce anyone who speaks favourably of Osama, but certainly he has a right to his opinion.

Anyone who advocates violent means, and subsequently conspires to commit criminal acts, is rightly condemned, whether s/he is an active participant or not. What is wrong is to accuse and condemn those who find anything of merit in his views of current Middle Eastern affairs. To categorically say that all of Osama's views are incorrect requires precise rhetorical analysis, and to categorically classify anyone engaged in this effort as a 'terrorist' is to destroy any potential for the success of logic as a tool for escaping wholesale destruction.