Let's just set the record straight. For some reason, everyone with whom I share a passing acquaintance thinks I was at that monster peace rally on Friday.

I wasn't.

Yes, I'm a politics student. Yes, I'm outspoken and opinionated. But most likely, everyone who knows me better knows I wasn't there, and could probably say why. Admittedly, they might say: "Because Dee couldn't be arsed."

This is a reason also. But mainly:

• I do not believe in rallies. I do not believe in massed gatherings in the street. The small measure of good they might do is entirely negated by the bad potentialities. In any crowd of people, the chaos potential increases and the average intelligence decreases geometrically, until you get mob mentality. This is how riots work. This is how groups of people are capable of things individuals would never even contemplate. And why there seems little chance of that in such a gathering as this was, still... Walking past it on the way to our restaurant, it seemed to me that the vast majority weren't so far from zombies submitted to the will of the mass. It's fucking scary. I want no part.
  
• I do not believe in peace. Well, not in this particular instance. After careful, advised, educated thought, the situation known as 'peace' in Iraq just can't be allowed to continue. Possibly it should have been done earlier. Possibly the motives of the aggressors aren't the most pure. But there's also the possibility - high, I think, but I have moments of blinding optimism - that this action might lead to regime change in Iraq. And that would benefit the lives of "innocent Iraqis" much more than holding off for another ten years for fear of accidentally blowing some of them up.

Basically, student politicians are morons, and I don't want to have anything to do with them.

Are we all clear now? Good.