NEWS that 100 UK and US planes have attacked a major Iraqi defence facility overnight will heighten fears that the coalition is ready for war.

This is a critical moment. Military action against Iraq will have profound consequences for us all.

Arab foreign ministers warned this week that an attempt to topple Saddam Hussein by force would "open the gates of hell" in the region. British casualties in such a war are inevitable.

The aftershocks would include a hike in oil prices, destabilising an already fragile world economy. Jobs may be lost, the Government's ambitious plans to improve schools and hospitals left in tatters.

Yet the Prime Minister Tony Blair has no intention of recalling Parliament.

This most presidential of prime ministers has no time for the doubters. War critics "were not thinking things through," he said this week.

If that is the case, those not thinking things through include all the other European prime ministers; 71 per cent of the British people who reject a military offensive without UN approval; and 90 per cent of his own back benchers, according to today's BBC poll.

Mr Blair says Britain must be prepared to pay a "blood price" to secure peace. The British people know more than anyone there is a heavy price to war, and are always willing to pay that price when the cause is just. We are also well aware the world would be safer without Saddam Hussein.

But the case has not yet been made for war.

The Prime Minister has promised to publish an Iraq dossier. That may yet persuade the nation of the need for urgent, forceful action.

In the meantime, our elected representatives should be in the Commons quizzing the executive and debating the issue in depth.

It is a telling indictment of the Prime Minister's opinion of our democracy that he will recall Parliament to let MPs pay tribute to the Queen Mother, but he will not do so when he is about to go to war.

Updated: 10:28 Friday, September 06, 2002