The air is thick with the stench of death and war today. Libya cannot end well, there are no good options on the table, and our countries – the “Torture Democracies” who run Guantanamo Bay, ship people to Egypt to be electrocuted by the secret police, and will not admit the invasion of Iraq was needless – these Torture Democracies are likely to be the ones at war.

Everybody else has basically knocked it off, except us. We are the ones making war. We, democracies, are the problem. It is our fault, as voters, for putting the bastards who start and maintain wars in power, and nobody held a gun to our head as happened in various other countries.

If they start another war, if the middle east turns into another invasion – or two – will you stand and fight, here, on your own soil, to overthrow the warmongers?

Will you fight against democracy, for peace?

Into this abyss I throw you: these are our elected leaders, fair and square, and their actions cannot be squared with goodness or justice. It is not the fault of our leaders, it is not the fault of our voters, it is the fault of the system which we call democracy. With the best will in the world, it is putting assholes in charge, who make wars, which we pay for in blood and treasure and many electoral cycles after the mistake was made, we still vote for the same two kinds of evil clowns.

But will you oppose the will of the people for peace? This is an error.

But will you accept our elected leaders insane, unconstitutional and evil decisions? This is also an error.

The paradox of democracy’s failure to make peace when given the opportunity throws up all kinds of paradoxes and evasions: these are not true democracies, people are uninformed, we need proportional representation, it’s all Fox News fault. People distort words horribly, refuse to face facts, resort to no true scotsman, freak out and become aggressive, all in the name of evading a very simple, basic truth.

This is the will of the people, and (on average), the people want war.

Now, doesn’t that explain a thing or two?

Throw away your activist’s model of human nature and face facts: we’ve seen the face of the enemy at the ballot box as we/they elect murderers into power again and again and again. That’s not a mistake, not an accident, not an error of judgment. That’s us using our democratic power to elect people to start wars on our behalf, to torture on our behalf, to violently invade other nations on our behalf, and to lie to us about it on TV.

If this thing in the middle east blows up, you’d better be able to seriously up your political discourse if we’re going to be able to stay relevant in the chaos which follows.

We democratically elected warmongers. They made war. We put them back in power. You know this. I know this. Can we thwart democracy in the name of peace? Can we preserve democracy at the price of peace?

Let it tear, let it tear away, all the way, inside of your heart and face the question squarely: if democracy cannot produce peace, what hope is there for a world without war?