I know the IMC collective will want to shoot me down for 'self-promotion' and all, but I just want to respond to James Abbott's criticism of me.

My intention was simply to show that the Green party's commitment to peace has strings attached, highlighted in the conference agenda (I never said this was policy). It accepts that the state can legitimately wage war and it accepts the existence of the arms trade. It also recognises the ultimate authority of the United Nations and the UN Charter and therefore nation-states are ultimately the most important units of political power on the international scene. Also, constitutional or institutional reform of the UN will not force violent super-powers like the US or Russia from using their military capacity to enforce their will. Again, the Green party does not have an answer.

For people like myself, who believe murder is wrong and that the entire political and economic order is based on exploitation and warfare, the Green party agenda does not go far enough. The Green party is, of course, free to publish its resolutions at the spring conference. I would be delighted to see its resolutions on the 'war on terror', which were not included in the original 'final agenda' for the conference.

As for the British Greens' stance towards Die Grunen, they simply gave a luke-warm criticism of their German counterparts who have thrown their weight behind the war on Yugoslavia and Afghanistan. They are still cosying up to war-mongers in the European Green group and sitting on policy committees with people who are participating in the destruction of Afghanistan, one of the greatest atrocities in modern human history which is on a par with Vietnam. If Caroline Lucas and others were resolutely against this terroristic war, they would have nothing to do with Die Grunen. I am disgusted that the Greens have any political relations with Die Grunen, who are poodles of Chancellor Schroder, and that's why I left the party.

I believe the lack of a commitment to pacifism could enable the Green party, in the even of it participating in government, to take a similar approach as Die Grunen has over Afghanistan. Good intentions cannot mask the ambiguity and naivite of the Green party's stance on war and do not ensure that the Greens won't sell out like Die Grunen.