The Independent's very thoughtful editorial on the war.

Argument
However, there is more to this war than that. The liberation of the Iraqi people is, on its own terms, a desirable and laudable aim. The more the Bush administration and its allies focus on the welfare of the Iraqi people, the better it will be. The more this is fought as a war to liberate Iraq, the more its damaging effects, both on Iraq and the rest of the world, can be minimised. The unprovoked invasion of a sovereign state sets an uncertain precedent; but it will be mitigated by the emphasis on Saddam Hussein's tyranny.

We are still nervous of the conduct of the war; but if it is fought on behalf of the Iraqis, there will be all the more pressure to avoid civilian casualties. And if the Americans hand over the task of reconstruction to the United Nations as quickly as possible, that might help to minimise the fanning of the flames of fanatical anti-Americanism around the world.

We can and should be sceptical, therefore, of George Bush's motives. While this conflict may not be "about oil" in the sense that the US wants to steal Iraq's natural resources ? and the coalition's pledge that oil revenues will be used to help fund the reconstruction of Iraq is welcome ? it is likely that the desire to secure diversity of supply is a factor in American thinking. The timetable may have been set as much by next year's presidential primaries as by the desert weather.

Equally, we should be ready for the spin machine as it moves into war mode. It was curious ? as Mr Blix might say ? that yesterday Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, and his US counterparts were warning us that the war might be longer and more difficult than some people think. The reason some people might think that is because, before the shooting started and while the priority was to round up support for military action, Messrs Hoon and Rumsfeld were happy to allow the assumption to spread that Iraqi forces were on the point of collapse. Thus General Sir Mike Jackson, Chief of the Defence Staff, said in a press interview last month he expected the war to be "relatively swift with low casualties".