Our motives (for war against Iraq) are becoming mixed as extra motives are thrown into the pot.
I may be wrong in that, but not I think in putting the questions. In our modern democracy the government needs not a unanimous but a general support for war before it orders our forces to fight.
The first two Prime Ministers whom I served, Ted Heath and Margaret Thatcher drew strikingly different lessons from the Second World War.
It was essentially for self defence that we went to war in Afghanistan and would go to war in Iraq.
But it cannot follow that because weapons and troops are now being deployed we are bound to go to war.
I believe that Egypt in its own way, the Palestinians when they are given a chance, and others will before long move towards greater democracy.
There is no consensus even today on the merits of Napoleon - and certainly no agreement on the rights and wrongs of the origins of the First World War.
No military timetable should compel war when a successful outcome, namely a disarmed Iraq may be feasible without war, for example by allowing more time to the UN inspectors.
We, Britain and Germany, can neither of us be happy about our handling of the Iraq war.
War on Iraq runs the risk of turning the Middle East into an inexhaustible recruiting ground for anti- western terrorism.