As the doves of peace were killed by what is boasted as the home of the brave, as the light of reason was expunged by what is touted as the land of the free, I join the thousands and millions of people who, in the face of the o­nly superpower wielding its might as if it is its birthright, feel a cold bottomless void of frustration, anger and despair.

For what we have come to witness is not mankind's shining moment as shamelessly promoted by the so-called liberators of Iraq, but mankind's most depraved and despicable.

From the moment the US cabal of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and Powell had Saddam Hussein's regime in their crosshair, they were determined to attack Iraq no matter what. Getting the endorsement of UN security council would be fine, but they, along with Tony Blair, were willing to go it alone, if necessary.

The UN was merely there to be bribed and bullied to go along with them. Failing that, it was to be castigated for being intransigent or irrelevant.

It was the Bush-Blair axis that tried to bully the UN into irrelevance because the UN demand - not just France, as the lying, arrogant Bush-Blair axis would have it, as though China, Russia and the other non-permanent members o­n the Security Council never existed - for patience for the light of reason to guide the way was inconvenient to the force of darkness.

The coalition of the willing is no more than the coalition of darkness consisting of the aggressors - of the US, UK and Australia - and the shameless - the 30-odd countries, according to the Bush administration, giving support to the aggressors but do not want to be named publicly.

It is this coalition that has forced o­n all of us to accept reason as having no place in whatever we do. They have forced their darkness to descend upon the land.

No amount of nice rhetoric can now wipe off the stain of blood from this coalition of darkness - not "operation free Iraqi", "liberators", "coalition of the willing" - because the simple fact of the matter is the light of reason has been put out by their sheer, naked force. Might makes right.

If the light of reason could not prevail upon the mightiest of the mighty, what now can o­ne expect from those powerless who have (rightly or wrongly) felt wronged and desperate for so long? Why should they be expected to go by any rules of human decency? What rules do we have left?

If the mightiest of the mighty could be so indifferent and callous toward other humans, how else could the powerless long reeling with the feeling (rightly or wrongly) of injustice stand up and respond if not through their very own means of callousness delivered in their own ways - here and there, now and then - but enough to strike fear o­n everyone?

Here then is the real injustice perpetrated by the leader of the "land of the free and home of

the brave" and o­ne shown to be the superbully: the world will be a lot more unsafe for many more

years to come.