<...Of course, forming an alliance with George Bush is an unpleasant experience, but we formed an alliance with Stalin to defeat Hitler. It is also possible that Bush, like his father, will betray the hopes of the people of Iraq - and we must campaign to prevent this.

We do not need President Bush's dangerous arguments about "pre-emptive action" to justify this war. Nor do we need to have the smoking gun of WMD. All we need are the humanitarian arguments we used during the Kosovo conflict to remove the monstrous Slobodan Milosevic - and this time, we can act in the certain (rather than probable) knowledge that the people being tyrannised will be cheering us on.



Gee, this sounds an awful lot like what I said in these pages a couple of months ago, while making a point about 'duly constituted authority'... guess I'm not a credible source of opinion - but, no matter. Someone said it. Interesting that it came from a British liberal, safely out of range of thinly veiled accusations of treasonous thought for failing to fall into lockstep with George&Tony's Big Parade.

It is, however, too late.

Bush's childish posturing - on our behalf, and are we proud of that? - and Blair's syncophantic me-too-isms have already polarized world opinion far beyond any chance of re-framing the discussion as it should have been; that is, as Hari says, in terms of human rights. Instead, emphasis has narrowed to disarmament, which begs the question in open minds: who outside of Iraq is realistically threatened?

Americans have allowed themselves to be cornered, their options reduced to three:

-- Unilateral military attack (with Blair riding Bush's coattails) - in which case we end up looking exactly like how our detractors paint us: hegemonists;

-- Browbeating the UN Security Council into authorization for military action for the wrong reasons and the slimmest of excuses - in which case we look no better, and maybe a damn sight worse, than under the first option;

-- Backing off - which Georgie won't do anyway.

Before you jump all over this, understand that I am fully aware that, if successful, the Iraqi people will be liberated anyway. To the survivors, we Americans will seem like heroes. The rest of the world's suspicions about us will nonetheless be confirmed. I'm not looking forward to my country being regarded in the same way as was Krushchev's USSR.