I was in the midst of a family party when news of America bombing Iran sucked the life from the room.

The night was ending. The youngest there, two little ones not yet five, were being roused from the couch to make their way home with mum and dad. The rest of us planned one last drink. It was around 1am.

My daughter picked up her phone to call a cab, scrolled, and said "America has bombed Iran". There was a moment of collective horror, a few whispered "Jesus Christs", "oh no" and "f**ks".

The mood quickly became strange, through. It wasn’t really fear or anger, more this weight of powerlessness pressing down on us all. What could we – mere people, mere citizens – do any more?

A friend nailed it: “We’re trapped on a planet with three lunatics who are going to kill us all.” He meant Trump, Putin and Netanyahu.

The older the folk, the greater the sense of helplessness. Back in 2003, I was 33. At the time, that age felt very adult. Looking back, I realise how young and naive I was.

In the run-up to the Iraq invasion, I wrote investigation after investigation detailing the lies which the governments of Tony Blair and George Bush were spinning to justify their illegal war.

Read more by Neil Mackay

There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Blair, Bush and their bloody-handed sidekicks knew that. They wanted war. They’d the taste of blood in their mouths.

I turned all those investigations into a damn book thinking, like a fool, it might matter. I marched with one million other people, thinking that might matter. Still the war came.

Iraq destroyed Britain and America. Our governments committed a monstrous sin based on........

© Herald Scotland