Hello everyone, I have been lurking for far too long. Or rather... I have been lurking. What is the longest anyone has been reading the list; enjoying the list; without posting? Your posts have been brightening up my day for a long while now, & I feel really bad that my first post is going to disagree with most of the people on the list... ...so lets have some B&S content before we get down to business. I heard State I Am In on the radio, when they were offering Tigermilk for £8 if you sent an SAE. I wrote a cheque but never sent it. Idiot. Later, my girlfriend took me to the Shepherds Bush gig. It was dire - and I fell in love, with the girl, and with the band. After a while, I was head over heals in love with both, so I asked the girl to marry me... she said no. She went off with a German maths student - it was for the best, I was infatuated rather than in love. But B&S never went away, and I have been in love ever since. I have tickets for Glasgow... I'm counting the days. So, back to the matter in hand. Saddam had until 1am this morning to leave Iraq, or face war. In fact, even if he left, the US were going to attack anyway. Our government voted last night to allow our troops to take part in an invasion of Iraq against international law. Against global, nevermind domestic, opinion. Against a lack of evidence that Iraq has weapons that could attack anyone within 20 miles, nevermind 2000... And I support that invasion. Yes, I know this isn't a popular view on this list, but I support the war. I believe that Tony Blair is an intelligent man, and much as I may disagree with his domestic tactics, I think he's a good and just politician, and if he believes (and is prepared to stake his career) on this war, then I will support him. I hate war. I hate violence. I abhor the idea that we are, inevitably, about to kill innocent people. But I believe that if we stand by, then more innocent people will die. Given the chance, Saddam would destroy the world, as long as he was left in control of the ashes. I don't believe we are after oil, I don't believe we are after power. I believe we are after peace. The question is not 'should we go to war' - that's academic now. The question is 'what should we do when we win?'. To quote people more intelligent than me (and I'm not talking about Spiderman) - 'With great power comes great responsibility'. Whatever happens to Iraq now is in our hands. Let's hope we don't mess it up. Sorry to post so off-topic, and so controversial. But by the time you read this we'll probably be at war, and I thought that needed marking by somebody. May angels and ministers of grace defend us. Mark +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+