Interesting response. (If you were a naive tree-hugger, I would not have bothered commenting in the first place!)
Taken in its context (and as more than a gesture) I find the song flawed because it doesn't address what to do about the Cold War. Just because the leaders of the West were lying scum who treated their own people as chess pieces, doesn't mean that there was no threat from the Communists.
Taken out of context, as a general statement of belief, it just seems to say: all war is wrong, people who organise wars are evil, and we can't really win them anyway - in other words, a sweeping pacifist statement.
One of many problems with this sort of thinking is that it encourages the articulate intelligentsia to disengage from the whole concept of military force.
If you say "all war is wrong", it makes it hard to argue seriously about any given war, or its conduct. Force remains in the hands of the nuts, hawks and sociopaths.
Worse, the army becomes divorced from the political classes. Politicians no longer have children in the forces to worry about, and - though this is slowly changing - casualties are less likely to have political repercussions.
As regards Gulf War 2. For me, the rights and wrongs of going to war are still murky (it does look as if we've been lied to). However, the occupation has been unforgivably badly organised. I shudder at the prospect of a friend or relative being posted into that mess.
Taken in its context (and as more than a gesture) I find the song flawed because it doesn't address what to do about the Cold War. Just because the leaders of the West were lying scum who treated their own people as chess pieces, doesn't mean that there was no threat from the Communists.
Taken out of context, as a general statement of belief, it just seems to say: all war is wrong, people who organise wars are evil, and we can't really win them anyway - in other words, a sweeping pacifist statement.
One of many problems with this sort of thinking is that it encourages the articulate intelligentsia to disengage from the whole concept of military force.
If you say "all war is wrong", it makes it hard to argue seriously about any given war, or its conduct. Force remains in the hands of the nuts, hawks and sociopaths.
Worse, the army becomes divorced from the political classes. Politicians no longer have children in the forces to worry about, and - though this is slowly changing - casualties are less likely to have political repercussions.
As regards Gulf War 2. For me, the rights and wrongs of going to war are still murky (it does look as if we've been lied to). However, the occupation has been unforgivably badly organised. I shudder at the prospect of a friend or relative being posted into that mess.
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