AFTER waiting 12 years for Saddam Hussein to disarm there is some merit in the argument that our leaders could have hung on just a little bit longer.

Equally, it is hard to dismiss out of hand those who argue that allowing the inspectors a few more weeks or months would make any difference.

All of those thoughts are however now in the past.

The Prime Minister has just survived the toughest vote of his parliamentary career and we are hours from war.

The important thing in these circumstances is that the public now gives its full backing to the men - and women - who are on the ground and in the air in the Middle East. After all they are the ones who are ready to make the ultimate sacrifice to rid Iraq of an evil dictator who thinks nothing of killing and torturing his own people and his neighbours.

We should think of the families among us whose sons and fathers are fighting their way through desert sandstorms.

A special thought too goes to Aly-Joy Haworth who will be spending the next few weeks on the front line trying to give comfort and medical aid to soldiers

and civilians alike.

As the innocent, non military, people of Iraq find themselves in the front line we should also think of the asylum seekers from that country who have managed to escape to freedom and now worry whether the loved ones they left behind will survive the war.

Some tense days lie ahead but let us hope for a speedy end to this war and a peace which sees the fall of a brutal regime and a new era of democracy in Iraq.