A strike by the USA and possibly the UK against Iraq could have disastrous consequences. Whether tens of thousands are killed or not it is likely to fan the flames of Islamic military militants of the bin Laden mould who will have a further reason to attack the west. And so once more we would get the pattern of reaction and counter-reaction. Saddam Hussein is certainly not a friend of human rights but the USA and UK should learn what they can reasonably change and what they cannot.

If the USA and UK want to influence the world there is a clear direction they can take. Let them lead the world in the struggle for an end to starvation, for the elimination of infectious diseases, for clean water, for human rights (and not, like the USA, pushing for getting Mary Robinson out of office as human rights commissioner), for an end to global warming and for reasonable and variable constraints on globalisation and international capitalism. The UK's ongoing pursuit of arms sales profits, and continuation of sales to India and Pakistan when war between them threatened, shows the current Labour government to be morally bankrupt in its international policies. The greatest obscenity in the world is that we have the power and resources to do so many of the things mentioned in this paragraph but do not. Demanding these things is not naïve; rather they are necessary to build a peaceful planet.

If significant moves were made by the USA on these matters then it would find the world its friend. But because its policies are largely selfish - including those policies promulgated after last year's attacks - and it has the economic and military power to stand alone in many instances, it can only create enemies. And enemies try to do dastardly deeds.

The people who died in attacks in the USA on 11th September last year did not deserve to die. Nor did the far greater number of people that very same day who died in poor countries around the world because their water supply was unsafe, they were so malnourished that they could not resist disease, or they could not afford drugs to fight off AIDS.