1) War these days means mostly one type of war IE aerial bombardment, only occasionally followed by a much riskier, more expensive ground war. This kind of war is between armies and is much better for the civilians of the countries invaded. many less civilians are effected, but the risk and cost to invading armies is greater. it's about time that governments who are so convinced of the need for action take the cost of such actions on themselves rather than imposing it on the innocent citizens of other countries.

2) The second aspect is the motivation, If politicians asking for an attack on Iraq truly believed their rhetoric about liberating the Iraqi people from the evil grips of the monstrous saddam, then they need to explain how they intend to do this and exactly what a post-Saddam Iraq would look like. They need to convince us that a genuinely democratic country with long term support from the international community will result. Unfortunately the example of Afghanistan shows us that the US is really only interested in installing semi-dictatorships friendly to american interests - in Afghanistan this means a secure(ish) Kabul and leaving the rest of the country in a chaotic state, with many of the similar problems and human rights abuses that have continued throughout all the recent regimes. In Iraq this will mean a wider and longer term settlement because the resources of a larger amount of the country are important, so Iraq will have a bit more money and effort spent on installing a more efficient regime and infrastructure, but not because the US have any desire for it, simply because it will allow enough stability to maintain oil and other trade. If the US was more interested in the intrinsic value of a stable, free and democratic societies then we might believe their rhetoric of bringing democracy to the world.

3) Iraq is high priority because of it's history as a former friend and current status of a real irritation the US, added to it's economic importance. However, there are many more pressing problems in the world AIDS, famine, climate change, palestine, lack of clean drinking water and Malaria to name just a few. I would be more than happy to see an attempt to solve the 'Iraq problem' if we had already dealt with any of these, even in a small way. Instead of this the order of priority is decided by a narrow definition of US self interest and so the 'Iraq problem' becomes a much greater priority than it should be.

Our leaders need to convince me that they are prepared to value the lives of foreign civilians equally to our own troops, make a long term commitment to a truly democratic iraq and make genuine efforts to solve the more pressing problems of the world I would be prepared to consider attacking Iraq, but until then i do not.