I took every chance I could to meet with U.S. soldiers. I talked with them and read the books they gave me about the war. I decided I needed to return to my country and join with them - active duty soldiers and Vietnam Veterans in particular - to try and end the war.

I have absolutely no regret about my vote against this war. The same questions remain. The cost in human lives the cost to our budget probably 100 billion. We could have probably brought down that statue for a lot less.

The Iraq war was fought by one-half of one percent of us. And unless we were part of that small group or had a relative who was we went about our lives as usual most of the time: no draft no new taxes no changes. Not so for the small group who fought the war and their families.

There's something brave and touching about game girls of all ages keeping themselves smart in hard times - one thinks of those wonderful women during World War II drawing stocking seams in eyebrow pencil up the back of legs stained with gravy browning because nylons were so hard to get hold of.

What we want to do is reform the welfare system in the way that Tony Blair talked about 13 years ago but never achieved - a system that was created for the days after the Second World War. That prize is now I think achievable.

You know the period of World War I and the Roaring Twenties were really just about the same as today. You worked and you made a living if you could and you tired to make the best of things. For an actor or a dancer it was no different then than today. It was a struggle.

In the months leading up to World War II there was a tendency among many Americans to talk absently about the trouble in Europe. Nothing that happened an ocean away seemed very threatening.

We didn't start this war - the right wing did. We're tired of seeing good-paying jobs shipped overseas. This fight is about the economy it's about jobs and it's about rebuilding America.

War continues to divide people to change them forever and I write about it both because I want people to understand the absolute futility of war the 'pity of war' as Wilfred Owen called it.

I have a friend that is a WWII buff and we sat and talked a lot about stuff like the war and the reasons behind it and you now it's all in the uniform. Once you're in it it usually does all the work for you.