Both used and abused, the UN has lost its fundamental legitimacy

ALL SORTS of historical parallels have been invoked to try to make sense of the current international situation surrounding Iraq, from the Suez Crisis to the Bay of Pigs invasion.

But, in truth, there is no precedent for the almost surreal debate over Iraq that has taken place in the past year. As the Independent on Sunday put it, never has a war been "so heavily signposted so long in advance, to the general indifference of so many".

We have a US administration that is desperate to go to war against another devastated, impoverished Third World state. Yet even armed with the powerful propaganda weapon of a demonised rogue whom it likes to compare to Adolf Hitler, it cannot generate any genuine popular enthusiasm for war, either domestically or in the wider world. On the other hand, we have a so-called anti-war movement that, despite all the dithering, confusion and anxiety within the Bush and Blair administrations, still cannot mount any coherent or convincing case for not attacking Iraq.