So how did we get to this point?

According to some officials, Mr Bush had made up his mind to tackle Iraq in the days immediately following the 11 September attacks.

Having seen the devastation caused by the use of conventional means, the thinking went, imagine an attack using chemical or biological weapons.

In the months that followed, the president seemed to veer from one justification to another: the violation of UN resolutions, Saddam Hussein's possible links to al-Qaeda, the brutal treatment of his people.
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But the real explanation is 11 September and the president's new-found doctrine of pre-emptive action to eliminate threats to America's security.

And there is something else.

This president, for better or worse, genuinely believes that to stop terrorism the Muslim world - and the Middle East in particular - needs, and deserves, a democratic "make-over", and that Iraq is the place to start.

Of course, it is unlikely the US would be on the brink of war were it not for the president's tendency to see the world in terms of "black and white" and "good and evil".

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