Some years ago – well, over 30 now, it was during our involvement in Vietnam – I read a lot of theological works about the concept of a “just war”. As I read on a feeling of unease came over me. Then it dawned on me.

Being a mathematician I am, by training, always on the lookout for unstated assumptions which may affect the conclusions. And in all the discussions about a “just war” there was one assumption which was so obvious at the time that nobody thought it even worth mentioning.

For those of you who know something about history, think back a couple of centuries and more. Who led the armies into battle?

“Oh, gee, it was the king or whoever was the leader!” you’ll eventually decide. In fact, up until around the time of Napoleon it was almost invariably the country’s leader who was at the forefront of any battle. King Harold was killed fighting at the Battle of Hastings. “A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!” was the cry of Richard III as immortalised by Shakespeare. William III fought against James II, leading to what we are now seeing in Northern Ireland.

Get the message? Now let’s translate this into modern terms. It will only be a “just war” if the first three people to invade Iraq – well before any bombs, “smart” or otherwise, are dropped, are Bush, Blair and Howard.

I’ll leave it up to the theologians to decide whether sitting at home in a comfortable chair, after ordering your aircraft to drop “smart” bombs on cities, and ordering troops to follow up, can be described, in any sense of the word, as “just”.

And I’ll leave it up to everyone to decide what the chance of these three politicians putting their own lives at risk is.

Salaam Ken Smith

— Dr Ken Smith – Christian, husband, unpaid mathematician, skeptic, … `Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch’entrate.’ `All hope abandon, ye who enter here.’ Dante Alighieri, “Inferno”, canto III, line 9