I have made a point of avoiding speaking about my politics on this blog, partly because I don't think my politics are particularly interesting, but I watched the presidential debates last night (which finished at about 4am our time) and a press conference by our own home secretary detailing plans to introduce identity cards, GPS tracking of refugees and other 'security' measures - I have to admit, this makes me pretty sad.
I just thought the following quote was interesting given the current climate throughout the world. In the UK, I think we always have to remember that we had typically one terrorist attack a month for about 25 years until a few years ago resulting in the deaths of 3285 people (on all sides) - since then we've had no attacks at all...
"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."
-- Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials
You can read about the history behind this quote here