Roger Syms

I have read these Why I Signed contributions, sometimes with tears in my eyes, but also enormously uplifted by the sense that at last there are people out there I can bond with. I am no longer alone.

This is a different world and a different kind of war, not even recognisable as such by some; certainly not a war as we have known it in the past. We no longer wave our youth off to fight and die on our behalf. We are all front-line troops now; never knowing when, we too, might find ourselves in the heat and hell of battle. Who knows how we will acquit ourselves? Hopefully, as well as so many before us, who have suffered with bravery, fortitude and defiance.

But brave rhetoric is one thing, how can we move forward in this battle not of our choosing? May I suggest our first task is to confront the "enemy within" by hitting the apologists head on, by directing them to this site and asking them to sign, and if they won't, to have the good grace to please explain why not?

I have already made a small start, writing to the few that I know and have some contact with, but if everyone among us can do the same, I will really start to feel we are not just passively enduring but fighting back.

Roger Syms (Master Mariner, Australia)