A lull in the afternoon’s workload gave me an opportunity to wander around some American blogs.

Honestly, some of those conservative/liberal chaps are spiteful. As a person with grave misgivings about the war in Iraq I found myself roped in with appeasers, self-haters, anti-Americans - and worse. As a conservative myself I suspect I would be strung up for thinking the war isn’t a good idea.

Anyway, I thought I’d clear my head on this subject and try to describe why I am uneasy about the Iraq project. Quite a bit of how I feel is based on gut instinct rather than hard-core statistical fact. This is a bit risky, thinking out loud on a blog. If you can intelligently challenge my opinions then please go ahead; I’m willing to listen because this is how we learn.

There are sensible arguments against the invading of Iraq that are not based on pacifism or any dishonourable cowardice in the face of terrorist threats.

Firstly, if one is even a little disposed to nationalist ideas then one respects national borders and would generally only cross one if one’s own security was at risk or if one had a treaty of some sort with a threatened country. I’m fairly certain that, for all his monstrosity, Saddam was little or no threat to the UK whatsoever. That the government needed to enhance, exaggerate and even fabricate an argument justifying the war is strong evidence that the motives for the war were not then ones expressed by Blair - that is, reasons of national security in the face of an imminent threat of attack by Iraq.

Second, democracy is not an object. It can’t be air-lifted into a country, plugged in to the nearest electricity socket and then switched on - hey presto, we have democracy. Democracy is usually an evolved state of affairs for which a population is primed over time, weaned from whatever they previously had until, in stages they reach a type of democracy (or whatever) that most suits them.

Iraq is a country that has existed for centuries on an Islam-based tribal social system - which has, to a large extent, survived Saddam’s secular regime. Whatever we in the liberally democratic, nominally Christian UK might think of it, tribal Islam is the natural and preferred means to living the good life for the average Iraqi. It’s not my cup of tea but it probably is theirs…

From a UK point of view - and this is a personal view undoubtedly tainted by an intense dislike for Tony Blair and his government - the imposition of ‘our’ system on ‘them’ is typical of an authoritarian administration that regards personal liberty as an obstacle to be overcome rather than a value to cherish. I realise Iraqis didn’t have much personal liberty under Saddam but they were still a people who lived their lives independent of UK control. Our government - and America’s - sudden regard for their well-being, so overpowering that a military invasion was considered necessary, has all the hallmarks of a coalition desire to impress their own will on a people regardless of whether those people wanted it at the price they were going to have to pay.

Finally, it seems that, in order to achieve the Iraqi Constitution that they want the US is having to acquiesce to demands that Iraqi law be informed by Islam. However we dress it up that means sharia. They’re simply reverting to type, to what they feel most at home with.

Given the choice between Saddam and western democracy many Iraqis will of course prefer western democracy but that’s less to do with the attraction of an imposed democracy and more to do with the abhorrence of Saddam. As I reject internationalist imposition in my country - via the EU especially - so Iraqis naturally object to western imposition from the US and UK.

I am not in any way anti-American. The US is a superb country and I visit there at least once a year (just got back from Boston this Sunday, in fact). I have a lot of respect for America generally and Americans particularly. I am genuinely aggrieved to hear the death reports of their soldiers - as well as our own and as well as Iraqi civilians and security personnel. Furthermore, I do not in any way support the awful statements of some anti-war commentators who, to my mind, are bordering on the gleeful at every mention of US difficulties in Iraq. This Cindy Sheehan lady (she lost a son in the war and is now demanding a one-to-one with President Bush to, probably, yell abuse at him) seems to be being used by anti-war groups to further their own political agenda. I find it - and the behaviour of some American anti-war people - deeply distasteful.

But if we are suggesting that the inspiration for the war was to spread democracy - since it almost certainly wasn’t a battle against a sovereign state which had the desire and the means to attack us - then why Iraq particularly and who’s next? Because there are dozens of nasty countries throughout this world of ours whose people are no less deserving of our concern. Are we just going to leave them to their fates? If so, why?

The means we use to achieve an end are as important - and can be more important - than the ends themselves. It is a typically Marxist attitude to believe that the ends are what count and how you get there is of little importance. If this invasion was an aspect of a clearly defined project to gradually work through all the tyrannies on the planet one by one to end the suffering of populations under vicious leaders then it would at least have the credibility of being a coherent and consistent policy backed by some semblance of honourable intention. But this is a seemingly arbitrary action, executed with no real idea on how to develop the project over time once the initial battle was won.

I believe we cannot pull out now. I genuinely hope that, now we’re in, we can make a good job of things, minimise casualties and, eventually, leave the Iraqis in substantially improved circumstances than those we found them in. America is strong, daring and resilient and can, if the will is there and if they have some favourable luck (they’ll need at least some), make a decent job of things.

It is not for me to judge though whether the loss of life amongst our soldiers and our American comrades - who have suffered particularly badly - and the Iraqi populace - who have suffered awfully - was a price worth paying for whatever is eventually created from this operation.