High Noon

George Dubya went on TV to justify this unilateral invasion and ended up falling back on his old Rawhide cowboy scripts.

Effectively its Saddam Dead or Alive, like some old western. All the lame brained legs-apart, trigger finger twitching clichés, with an Ennio Morricone soundtrack twanging away in the background.

George Dubya IS Clint Eastwood, facing off with his poncho, his righteous anger and his family score to settle. What were the old Dirty Harry lines? "Go ahead, punk, make my day". The typical cowboy bully trying to make the other guy flinch first, then beat him to the draw. To give him an excuse to pull out the .44 Magnum and blow the bad guys brains out.

Except that this time the defenceless villain has already got the hands in the air. The other guy isn't going to reach for the gun, and the leader of the western world seems ready to shoot first anyway. Outlaw style. "Ask yourself one question. Do you feel lucky?"

The war is supposed to be based on Iraq's collection of mass destruction weaponry and the tinpot dictator's ties to al Qaeda. And yet he and his desperate lacky Tony Blair have singularly failed to prove their point. The UN said stop, so he goes ahead anyway, egged on at home by fundamentalist Christians, defence contractors, and oil companies. And TV pundits who are loving every minute.

The trouble with Bush is that this is man is surrounded by old school ideologues who failed to sort out Iraq the first time. I don't think he could stop this whole mess even if he wanted to.

Take Bushes VP Dick Cheney. He was his father's Defence Secretary when it all kicked off last time, so is perfectly placed to take all this personally. Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld was doing the same job years ago for Gerald Ford! He's the dude who killed off the SALT 2 ballistic missile treaty with the Soviet union.

Then of course there is good old General Colin Powell - who was right in the thick of it with old Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf during the first "Showdown Iraq" episode.

I'm writing this as the TV ambulance-chasers salivate over this Mexican standoff. The countdown to high noon is over and presumably the biggest military and commercial superpower are going to give up the moral high ground that they've held onto since World War 2 and get down and dirty in the desert. Live on telly.

Once again the war is getting the full 24 hour rolling news treatment with all the big shot news reporters giving good face to the cameras. I'm sat here with my beer and a huge bag of Doritos waiting for the big Armageddon game to kick off. The Shock and Awe campaign.

If World War Three is about to kick off and the world's about to end I want to make damn sure I don't miss it. I've got my clean grundys on and everything.

B

A TV snippet - an American vox-popped in Miami.

"It's all about the oil. If it wasn't for the oil we wouldn't be there."

So are you in favour of the war?

Hell yeah! I don't wanna be paying two bucks a gallon...!!"