But I was in London in the Blitz in 1940, living in the Milbank Tower where I was born. Some different ideas have come in since. And every night I went down to the shelter in Thames House. Every morning I saw dockland burning, 500 people were killed in Westminster one night by a land mine. It was terrifying. Aren’t Arabs terrified? Aren’t these Iraqis terrified? Don’t Arab and Iraqi women weep when their children die? Doesn’t bombing strengthen their determination? What fools we are to live in of a generation for which war is a computer game for our children and just an interesting little Channel 4 news item.

Every member of Parliament tonight who votes for the government motion will be consciously and deliberately accepted the responsibility for the deaths of innocent people if the war begins, as I fear it will. Now that’s for their decision to take. But this is a quite unique debate in my parliamentary experience where we are asked to share responsibility for a decision we won’t really be taking with consequences for people who have no part to play. In the brutality of the regime which we are dealing with. And I finish with this. On October 24, 1945, and the former Prime Minister from Bexley and Olcet will remember it.

The United Nations Charter was passed. And the words of that charter etched into my mind and moved me even as I think of them. We the people of the United Nations determined to save future generations, succeeding generations from the scourge of war which twice in our lifetime has caused untold suffering to mankind. That was the pledge of that generation to this generation and it will be the greatest betrayal of all if we voted to abandon the charter and take unilateral action and pretend we were doing it in the name of the international community. And I shall vote against the motion for the reason that I’ve given them.

There is no great debate in the House of Representatives or the Senate of the United States of America on this for all of the wrongful decisions that were made by the House of Commons. At least they had a debate. At least there was an Anthony Wedgwood ban. There’s nothing here. It’s a decision of one man made in a subterranean room surrounded by people telling him what he wants to hear. I agree. But I also think it’s worth noting where this message came from. Again, an elderly statesman now who has passed away. And this is a real problem because it’s said that every generation has to learn to fear war.

And we’ve had many decades of relative peace and stability and that former generation who experienced also the Second World War and all the horrors of war. They’re all passing away now. And the lessons of war is also gone. So there’s not any healthy fear of war anymore. And to make matters much worse, we had now over three decades of a unipolar order in which war is something that doesn’t happen here. It happens far away in other places. And again, we can sit and justify whatever we’re doing. Usually we do it by referencing democracy and freedom and ideals that we hold there.

But there is this also what I suggested, this is always the need if you’re going to go and bomb other people, the need to dehumanize the opponent. Again, they do have, you know, these are the same fellow human beings. And all we have to do now is make references to terrorism. And it’s enough to begin to support a genocide. And it’s not just that the people we are slaughtering in other places, you know, which is a disaster. But it’s also, you know, it’s hollowing out our, you know, the soul of our countries as well. When we have to legitimize what shouldn’t be legitimized just on a daily basis.

Yeah, it’s quite heartbreaking. We need, I wish we had these kind of diplomats and politicians today because I don’t see them among our own political class. No, no. In the American Congress, there’s just a few and the leadership does the best it can to shut them down. The House of Representatives doesn’t permit debate. They give you one or two minutes. The Senate, you could talk as long as you want, but you’re talking to an empty chamber just to switch gears. [tr:trw].

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