This is a political war, a war of power largely orchestrated by the ideologues and zealots who surround that most implausible of presidents, George Bush. This recourse to war is a substitute for thought and understanding, divisive in conception and enormously damaging to the international order. More broadly, this is a war between powerful men on all sides, men accustomed to getting their own way. It is not a popularly-endorsed war, however hard they try to portray it so - not by the peoples of Iraq or the Muslim sphere or the peoples of the west. They did not want it. But it is ordinary people everywhere who will be affected by the imminent instability and terror. By this untimely, pre-emptive act are all debates, all protests and petitions, and - to most eyes - all UN processes set at nought. All that remains is the sad, fretful hope that it will soon be over.

Hope is - and should be - the policy now. In truth, hope is the only policy for a Britain committed to the US come what may, almost wholly deprived of its independence of action, both military and diplomatic, and at the mercy of events directed in Washington. There is the hope that civilian casualties are kept to a minimum (whatever that means) and the American bombs and missiles are indeed "smarter" than in 1991. There is the hope that pledges to avoid essential civilian infrastructure such as hospitals and power plants will be honoured. This war will be prosecuted, says US Admiral Timothy Keating, with "breath-taking speed, agility, precision and persistence". Well, we shall see. Aid agencies warn of possible humanitarian and refugee crises. Hopefully, these human tragedies will not materialise.