Lord Bruce of Donnington, former deputy head of MI6, warned in a powerful speech in the House of Lords that war in itself was disgusting, but that it moreover would lay the foundations for an American despotism:

"I do not believe in war because I think it's one of the most immoral acts that organized society can perpetrate. We talk of collateral damage in the event of war. I wonder if you really understand what is meant by collateral damage? They are going to be blown up and torn up; men, women, and children. One of the cardinal tenets of my party [the Labour Party] is the wickedness of war. War is an evil thing. This fact is not a thing to be brushed over, it is not something to be set aside. It is a terrible thing and has terrible consequences for all the individuals concerned. If we should go to war we should be implicitly ending the whole political structure of the world as we know it. We shall be destroying that civil structure; we shall be substituting it with the power and authority of one state: the United States, who will thereafter be conducting the general affairs of mankind."