No military timetable should compel war when a successful outcome, namely a disarmed Iraq may be feasible without war, for example by allowing more time to the UN inspectors.

Diplomacy is unfashionable in the world of knee-jerk reaction and the dogmatic sound bite on television.

There is no consensus even today on the merits of Napoleon - and certainly no agreement on the rights and wrongs of the origins of the First World War.

A genuinely democratic Iraq might well act as a fresh spur.

There are thus great swathes of the past where understanding is more important and reputable than judgement, because the principal actors performed in line with the ideas and values of that time, not of ours.

War on Iraq runs the risk of turning the Middle East into an inexhaustible recruiting ground for anti- western terrorism.

If Margaret Thatcher had been Prime Minister at the time, there would have been no Treaty of Maastricht.