On 15 February, some 8 million people in 200 cities around the world turned out in force to protest the war on Iraq. In Singapore, 6 turned up in front of the American embassy. The incident sparked a series of soul-searching articles in the press attempting to explain this national state of apathy. Since then, a number of artistes have spearheaded efforts to express their discontent with the war, through theatre and poetry. Their efforts have provoked a backlash by pragmatists who say any response to this war must be tempered by rationality, and a sense of what is in our national interest. Have we merely witnessed the lunacy of several artistes on the fringe of society? Are Singaporeans in general too sensible for placards and candlelight vigils?

Or are we victims of a propaganda war? In his account of the conflict in Kosovo, Michael Ignatieff coined an interesting new term to describe the way conflicts today are fought. "Virtual wars" are wars where entire nations feel as if they have been conscripted into battle through the illusion of a television screen. But such illusions are potentially dangerous. In Kosovo, Ignatieff noted, US and Nato forces did the fighting, but Kosovars and Serbs did the dying. The ease with which virtual wars are fought, Ignatieff warned, threaten to make them the tool through which superpowers impose their will on the rest of the world. The Iraqi war, with hundreds of embedded reporters beaming back snapshots of battles in low-res images, seems to have taken the concept of the virtual war to a new level. As Richard Goldstein of the Village Voice writes "bombs burst over the Tigris with the splendor of award-winning cinematography". Has the media coverage of this war made it more acceptable to us at such a comfortable distance from the fighting, or does the very vividness of this war explain the strength of the anti-war movement that has mobilised millions around the world?

Martin Luther King once said that there comes a time when silence is betrayal. Come share with us your reactions to the way the war in Iraq has been fought, abroad, and at home.