Editorial Comment 3-3-2006
Let us assume for one moment that Bush really is a ‘good guy’. What would he do?
1. Ensure safety of the citizens of Iraq.
2. Ensure the infrastructure is reconstructed at pace.
3. Have a structured withdrawal, as normal human values of the majority population in a protected, caring, environment produce a stable society.

And if he is a ‘bad guy’?
1. Look after own interests only.
2. Ensure oil flows above all else. Forget safety, forget basic human needs.
3. Plan to stay and blame others for the inability to leave.

Now which scenario do we see?
Oh! And Mr. President there’s a mighty wind a comin’ to your shores and your city’s low lying and precariously protected. Should you:
1. Show true concern for your citizens and suggest action to remove them from danger, or
2. Regard weather as an uncontrollable irritant and think about a response after a few voters have died and catch your callous decision on video?
Oops! Wrong again Mr. President.
And we can hardly sit comfortably in the UK, after all the Puppet Master sits in the White House whilst the limp puppet lies in number 10.

Editorial Comment 26-2-2006
So this is what Bush is about. Did you watch like me, open mouthed and aghast as you saw on BBC’s Newsnight programme last night, David Rivkin, Washington Spokesman, not deny, but seek to justify the 98 deaths, some 8-12 directly from torture, of prisoners in US captivity? His main argument was that this was only 0.1% of the inmates, too small a number to trifle with!
I just wondered as I watched, gob smacked whether he even considered that if he was a prisoner of an opposing aggressor whether he considered his life totally without worth, for he would be justifiably killed and possibly tortured to death, with the justification being that he represented a tiny proportion of the men they had captured. This coming on top of further revelations of Abu Ghraib mistreatment has painted a truer picture of what lies in the White House.

The message from Washington now is that every life is worthless, a sad departure from the Christian teachings Bush claims to be a flag bearer for and surely and stupidly a message to murderers everywhere that every killing is justified if the victim is at the wrong place at the wrong time. The Iraqi people deserve our prayers. Just who is more out of control in Iraq, the Bush Administration or the insurgents?

Editorial Comment 13-02-2006.
1.00 p.m. on 10th Feb. 2006 marks the moment when the mass of humanity claimed back its God given inheritance, when a Beacon of Peace was ‘lit’ by the tying of 100 ribbons.

The names of 100 British Service personnel and 100 Iraqis were read out and the one hundredth and first British soldier and the estimated 100,000 (Lancet) innocent Iraqi citizens were remembered, who lost their lives due to the failure of politicians. The British people held no malice towards the Iraqi people and the Iraqi people held no malice towards the British people, yet many have died because of the calculated lies of two politicians either side of the Atlantic, all for the sake of ‘black gold’ (oil).

Humanity has reached a stage in its development when war is unnecessary. Communication and globalisation means there is no excuse for powerful nations to bully weaker ones by systematic killing (war). Our planet has the resource of oil that is finite and is being squandered to provide riches for a limited few and at the same time destroying the future for us all by adversely affecting the planet’s ability to regulate its temperature. Oil cannot be provided again. It was produced by specific circumstances and conditions whereby fossilised cellulose was transformed by incredible pressure and heat within the earth’s crust, thereby storing historical heat energy from the sun. Releasing all that energy and its by-products in a maniacally short earth time is understandably destabilising a finely balanced system. The longer we live in our comfort zone the more assured is our destruction.

Now is the time for the majority of humanity to make a stand for our future. This majority is made up of people who wish to live their lives in peace and in harmony with the planet that supports us. Only by realising that we have to act NOW, both individually AND collectively, by Governments’ legislation, do we have a chance. Complacency will ensure a future for an elite few only. On our present path only a selfish remnant will prevail, the rest of us and our future generations will die. We need to change direction. This is a struggle for survival and we are being conned. It is time for the quietly complacent majority to snap out of a comfort malaise and take action; Democratic action.

A Beacon of Peace, that can start a chain reaction for change, has been ‘lit’. The rest is up to every one of us, for our children and their generations to come.
Don’t leave action on the environment to someone else. We are in this together.

Editorial Comment 06-02-2006.
As violence erupts in the Muslim world, will Bush and Blair cynically use it as an excuse to further their evil intentions. Most of us realise Iraqi oil will forevermore be US oil. With the 100th British serviceman losing his life in the conflict, we reflect with heartfelt sympathy, the intolerable loses these two leaders have perpertrated. A new protest against what these two have done and 'Beacon for Peace' is conceived and initiated this week. See our protest, press and event pages.

Beacons of Peace.

This week the BBC is to air the episode of ‘The Virgin Queen’ when beacons are lit in the reign of Elizabeth I, to warn of the Armada’s approach and also to inform of its passing and defeat.
In our decimalised world, on Friday 10th February, in the reign of Elizabeth II, in the old Roman town Corinium (modern Cirencester), where Centurions once stood, which is the nearest major market town to the home of recently enrolled officers Princes William and Harry, a beacon for peace and against what Messrs. Bush and Blair have perpetrated, will be revealed.
The beacon taking the form of a traffic light festooned with 100 coloured fluttering ribbons. These represent the colourful vibrant lives lost who will no longer feel the breeze on their faces, both of the 100 British Servicemen and the estimated 100,000 Iraqi citizens slayed in the name of two leaders, whose actions the majority of the world’s population see as wrong.

Why a traffic light?
It is a noticeable, strategically situated, universal symbol, whose light shines out, constantly changing as a flame and with a message: (red) STOP WAR (amber) CHANGE TO (green) A GREEN PLANET.
This is a beacon of defiance to warmongers Bush and Blair. This is a symbol of peace and hope, to change from their ways to one where the waste of war is ended and action urgently undertaken to repair our planet’s environment.

This beacon, non-damaging, non-violent, is reproducable throughout the land, throughout the world even, since they are globally distributed. Simple to do (ribbons are readily available at card and party shops everywhere), so visible as a beacon should be, always shining its message, repeatable wherever people of peace reside. Our chance for the people of the world to speak out against the Bush and Blair era of violence. A beacon of hope.

The beacon starts in Cirencester, this Friday, 12.30 to 1.30 p.m., in the Market Place. Let it spread its message throughout the land and beyond.

Editorial Comment 24-01-2006.
The year is 3 weeks old and many old and new issues have surfaced. Why, then, do we act like lemmings, careering towards the precipice?
The most recent surfacing was the bottle-nosed whale in London; not a Damien Hurst publicity stunt, but a God given wake-up call. So what do we do? Sob in sentimentality and continue on our path!

What an opportunity missed. The public’s attention gained and the environmentalists rightly pointing out the plight of whales and of the environment as a whole, but were the media the least bit interested? NO, only the odd brave newspaper thought to stop and take note, the majority were more interested in the sex lives of politicians or football manager’s greed. The hypocrisy of some of the moralising on public figures, by some papers, begs belief, but that’s a diversionary issue.

We need something to snap the world out of its comfort seeking malaise. We can’t have everything we want and just nonchalantly think we’ll be alright, because we’ll invent some way of overcoming our neglect. This Movement – Traffic lights for peace – highlights the need to STOP, reassess, take note and CHANGE DIRECTION!

As a reader of this editorial you can already consider yourself an activist, for you are concerned and know we must be doing something. To new readers, this Movement, as regular surfers of the site already know, does not seek to replace any of the excellent Organisations for peace, justice and environment in existence, but seeks wholeheartedly to bring them and their message to the whole general public, not just the truly concerned few. To that aim we beg each surfer, to tell others to look at this site and hopefully be inspired to join one or more of the organisations of care that are out there wanting to work towards a harmonious, caring and sustainable world.