Well yes there is indeed an argument for superior force but a lot of modern politicians deploy it far too quickly in their powerplays and at the end of the day what has been achieved except withdrawal, generational hatred and suffering. Thirty years of strife in Northern Ireland and all those deaths for something that was achievable by other means.'We don't inherit the earth from our parents, we borrow it from our children'is a great motto to live by.
Many thanks for your comments Fee and Ron, it's good to debate the great moral questions of our age.I think poetry is one of the best mediums to raise the public conscience.
Mary Cecil

This indeed makes a serious statement and from an Irish lady especially. Sadly whenever there are people who use tyranny to subjugate or hurt others the only true reply to them is superior force. I salute the ones behind the scenes as Ronald suggests but I also salute the frontline soldiers who leave behind wifes and children to ensure that no one will face the kind of misery dealt out in past by dictators such as Hitler, Mussolini, bin Laden and the Ayatollah. Thanks for sharing your insight Mary.
fee

Hooray! that's the most patriotic thing I've read in a long time. When I first started reading, I thought of the plots to kill Hitler. We don't know them all, and some of those heroes, like those among the Muslim community who may have tried to kill bin Laden. They are unknown and unsung, but they are far more hero than some lucky soldier who happens to kill a lot of the enemy, either by luck or by superior firepower. I can't imagine using a flamethrower on even the most entrenched and vicious Japanese soldiers.

Ron