The UK has quickly followed suit. The Blair government supported the war against Iraq and have successively introduced anti-terrorist measures in the UK - which human rights organisations have condemned as infringing the rights of all citizens. In the last year two major European reports - from the European Court of Justice and the European Commission - have highlighted concerns about human rights violations in the UK.

We say nothing about the contravention of international human rights law being perpetuated in Guantanamo Bay - which no government or even the UN seems prepared to tackle.

But let's not pretend that all this is a recent occurrence. Militarisation has been around since cities were founded, even before the concept of the nation state. Alexander the Great laid waste central Asia in order to impose his formula of 'civilisation'. Unfortunately the recent film didn't draw out the present parallels. And, down through history, religion has been invoked as a justification for war: remember the 'holy' Crusades waged by England against 'the infidel' in the Middle East? That was a thousand years ago.

Militarism is closely linked with mysogyny.

Firstly there is the psychologcial link between pornography (fetichised sex) and armed combat (fetichised murder) It's well documented that fighter pilots, for example, have pornographic photos in their cockpits, write poems that interweave rape and slaughter, and orgasm while dropping bombs. Listen to some of the music the troops used in Iraq and you will hear the same message.

Secondly there is the deliberate link between mysogyny and military strategy. The CIA (literally) wrote the textbook on the use of rape as an instrument of systematic terror while they were training the Contra to bring down the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua in the 1980s. They also encouraged the kidnapping, brutalisation and use of children as soldiers. We believe that, directly or indirectly, these practices influenced the use of 'ethnic cleansing' that later was widespread in the Balkans and in sub-Saharan Africa (DR Congo, Sierra Leone...) at a time when the chance to deliberately spread HIV/AIDS was seen as an added bonus. Incredibly, women are able to transcend this abuse and forgive their enemies.

Yes, it's true, women and girls do take part in armed combat. But no-one could seriously use this as a justification. Women have sometimes fought alongside men to bring about Revolution although this has rarely resulted in gender equality in the longer term, as women are expected to return to their traditional role.

Often women are forcibly conscripted to provide food and sex. But let's not pretend that this is a practice specific to less sophisticated armies in developing countries. The UN Security Forces are well known for the same practices - although the reaction to the UN report published this year seemed to suggest that this was a new phenonomen.

Nice guys, why do you let any of this happen?
Women, you wave your sons off to war and welcome them home again. Why?
Yes, we are really angry about all this. There is too much to say. Please click on the left side bar to read more.