My teenager daughter Daisy is fast approaching an age where she is trying to work out what career path she wants to follow.  Sadly she is at that stage in her terrible teens where the last person she will consult is me. And while some of her role models are decidedly dodgy, even I have to admit that perfume titled heiress Paris Hilton is preferable to that vain, self-serving hypocrite Tony Blair. Of course if Daisy goes on to become a casino hustler, karaoke singer or Big Brother contestant, I know exactly who will be held to account: Me! 

Naturally, I would be over the moon if she became a doctor, dentist or a human rights lawyer and if I can at all steer her in that direction I will. But if she doesn’t turn out to be the sharpest tool in the box, I will continue to give her all the love and support.  And to that extent, I suppose I am no different from anyone else over my parental concerns and ambitions and that includes those of the British Prime Minister and that other war-mongering dad, US President George W Bush. 

It is the one thing me, Tony and George have in common, along with half their advisers and Government members ... not one of us wants to see our children fight for their country in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Views, by the way, I reckon are also shared by every single Republican Senator and all politicians sitting in the British Parliament who supported the invasion and occupation of Iraq.  But that is where the similarity ends. I am not a hypocrite unlike those folk who still claim the illegal war in Iraq and the escalating conflict in Afghanistan are noble causes worth paying the blood price for just as long as it is not their claret, or the blood of their sons, daughters, nephews or nieces.  

It is also extremely difficult to lead by example if you do have the backbone of aspic. A politician who had no such qualms was US President Franklin Roosevelt who was so convinced by the just cause of the Second World War that he was prepared to let his family pay the blood price. In fact he encouraged his four sons to sign up to fight for Uncle Sam. Even his wife joined the war effort by traveling around US military bases to personally give support and comfort to the families of dead or injured soldiers. 

Around that time another patriotic teenager who later became a US President – George Bush senior - enlisted to fly torpedo bombers. He flew 58 missions in two years and returned home a war hero. Since then, no one in his large family has followed his sterling example of service.  I certainly haven’t seen any news bulletins showing the latest generation of Bush youth wanting to serve their country in uniform and there’s no such stirring from British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s eldest.  Yet both Bush and Blair continue to talk about these ‘noble’ causes and even have the cheek to say they have God on their side.

And their audacity knows no bounds as they talk about young men and women making the ultimate sacrifice and paying the blood price.  Of course if any journalist has the cheek to point out the blindingly obvious and ask them about the chances of their adult sons and daughters putting on a uniform, they call the questions intrusive and hide behind demands for privacy.  Maybe I am being a tad unfair because Euan Blair, for instance, has been the victim of negative press coverage before. His first scrape with Fleet Street came at the tender age of 10 when his parents chose to send him to a grant-maintained school. Labour Party activists said at the time that the decision was a betrayal of the party’s long held opposition to schools opting out of local authority control.  Then the poor lad made the front pages after being found drunk and incapable in London’s Leicester Square after some school exams.  And the only evidence I’ve seen of community service being carried out by the Bush daughters came when the troublesome twins were ordered to do so by a court after they were cited for underage drinking.  

As far as I am aware, neither Cherie Blair nor America’s First Lady have traveled to visit sick and injured soldiers in Army hospitals or listened to the sorrows of those who have lost their sons and daughters who served in Iraq or Afghanistan.   I have spoken to members of the Military Families Against the War on both sides of the Atlantic and the way they have been treated by their governments is nothing short of shameful.  While I will defend Bush and Blair’s parental right to protect their children, what I do find indefensible is the way they expect other parents to pay the blood price by sacrificing theirs.  I really do not know what my daughter Daisy will choose to do in her adult years. Her great grandfather served in the Royal Air Force while her grandfather signed up to the Navy and her father was an army Colonel but in these days of illegal occupations and unjust wars may be this is one family tradition best forgotten.