Why is it that when men reach a certain level of political office, they no longer view themselves as elected statesmen, but more as saviors of the human race? Last night I saw Tony Blair on the news giving a speech in which, in his most condemning tones, he told of his shock at a recent statement from Iran that had suggested they wanted to wipe out Israel, and went on to say that, "if this goes on, people wont be asking 'are you going to do something about this?' They'll be asking 'when are you going to do something about this?'"

Now I should just point out that I am not suggesting that it is anything other than totally disgusting if Iran did indeed make such comments, and I cannot even concieve of getting oneself into such a state that you feel the need to destroy a single life, let alone a whole country. My problem is this: when did Britain and the USA become appointed the moral guardians of the world? I must have missed that memo. What gives one man like Mr Blair the right to decide that his government is just and fair while another one is wrong just because it works differently? Plus am I the only one that senses a slight tinge of hypocricy in condemning another government for being hostile towards a country that is not attacking them, after what we did to Iraq? The only difference is that we have more powerful weapons (mainly because we decided that only we are good enough to have them) and so we all know what's going to happen.

Cue the "celebrations" over Iran's first democratic election in a couple of years' time (assuming the suicide bombers don't ruin things).

This is of course by no means limited to Mr Blair. Ever since President Bush came to power he has insisted on talking like a member of the clergy, referring to the forces of good and evil as if his elected status also gives him divine right to judge other men and decide what is acceptable and what is not. If you ever listen to a Bush speech you will here lots of phrases like "let us [insert commendable suggestion, eg "stamp out the darkness that lurks in our world"]; "we shall/shall not..." (as ultimate Knower of all that is Good I have decided for you all what we shall do); and other phrases taken out of "The Bishop's Guide To Writing A Good Sermon".

What makes things even worse with the American leader is that we know just how overwhelmingly hypocritical and self-helping everything he says and does is. When he stated the other day that he found Syria's actions "deeply disturbing" you know he has been looking for an excuse to get at them for a long time. He doesn't find the awful things that go on in Saudi Arabia "deeply disturbing", because they are friends, and well paying friends.

The only reason I'm going on about this is that I am just fed up of all these people dying because of our countries acting like teachers with the world as their playground, telling off all the little children if they say the wrong thing or do anything that they don't like. Apparantly the 2000th US soldier recently died in Iraq, and this is so long after the war officially finished that I couldn't even tell you when it was exactly. Bush is on film calling himself "the war President" - like he thinks its a bit of fun, and when he got the chance to send his troops to Iraq he probably thought it would be like one of those video games that he always gets stuck on after the opening menu. Unfortunately for all those people who actually had to get involved it turned out to be more than a game, and when the game was up for all the massive amounts of citizens that have died, it really was up.

Iran isn't going to attack Israel. Everyone knows that. I'm much more scared for all the innocent bystanders in Iran that are going to become next year's statistics if things carry on like this. I hope with all my heart that for once the leaders can put their ego's aside and realise that this has absolutely nothing to do with them, that just like so many times before they will only cause damage, hurt, and hatred if they try to go in all guns blazing.

Perhaps it will come to nothing. I really hope that this post will seem like a spectacular over-reaction to something that was never going to happen, because I'd rather look over-opinionated than have more people killed. But if it isn't Iran there's always Syria, or North Korea, or any of the other non-"Christian" countries that we don't like.

The news is always so horrible these days, with earthquakes and hurricanes and any other weather disaster you can think of killing huge numbers of people. Why on earth do we then have to go around killing even more ourselves?

Sorry for such a heavy post. I try keep this blog politically neutral, and I'm not by any means saying that things would be at all better with different political parties in charge. Looking at politics the way it is, its hard to imagine things changing too much even if Britain and America both got new leaders. My only concern is what is happening to all those innocent people, and for the sake of them I don't think it is worth trying to force the world to be exactly how we think it should be.

Seeya

SIMARK