Our columnist this week is a student from Bradford Sonia Kumar

In 1914 the soldiers of the First World War were confident that they would be home by Christmas.

How wrong they were.

They were to suffer a horrific bloodbath that lasted four years. It is estimated that there were 8,500,000 military deaths.

Almost a century later and we have gone down the same path again. We have the benefit of hindsight and yet it seems that we have failed to learn from our mistakes.

On March 1, 2006, the Iraq body count recorded that 35,712 civilians had been killed. That is excluding US and British troops. It goes without saying that many on top of this figure have gone unrecorded.

It seems that we are being led into war by men who sit comfortably at home, clean and tidy in their suits, and give orders. One wonders if they have any real idea of what is going on. Where have the real leaders gone? Men such as Churchill who led us through the Second World War.

Iraq was attacked in 2003 under Operation Freedom. Three years later, we are told that there is civil war there and this is being quelled by socalled Operation Swarmer. Some of the men who are attempting to aggravate civil war, however, work for the Iraqi interior ministry and are ultimately paid by us!

How ambiguous this war appears! It seems that many are becoming disillusioned by centuries of war and politicians who mislead us. How is freedom being introduced when thousands of innocent Iraqis are being slaughtered each month?

Where is our justification for going to war now?

On September 12, 2002, George Bush stated: "Iraq has stockpiled biological and chemical weapons, and is rebuilding the facilities used to make more of these weapons.'' None of these weapons has yet been discovered and according to Bush's statements they should not have been difficult to locate as they apparently existed in large quantities.

The reality of the situation is that our armed occupation in Iraq is destroying an entire population. A mass slaughter of innocent people is taking place, not to mention the atrocious discoveries at Abu Ghraib and Guantamano Bay.

How are we then to believe that we were justified to go to war?

It is sad that the war which had such horrific and large-scale casualties that it was dubbed 'The war to end all wars', never lived up to its name.

If you're in your teens or early 20s you could sound off in our Voice of Youth column every Wednesday. Whether it's a national issue that has caught your attention, a local problem that you want to make your feelings known about, or even something on a global scale which needs addressing, we're looking for young people to say how they feel. Articles should be 500 words long. For more information or to have your piece considered for publication, contact the Telegraph & Argus features desk on (01274) 705261, e-mail: david. barnett@bradford. newsquest. co. uk, or write to David Barnett, Features Editor, Telegraph & Argus, Bradford BD1 1JR. We'll need to get a photograph of you and under-16s need the permission of a parent or guardian.