It lies in being passionate about the human rights of those facing torture and of those facing bombardment.And it lies in saying to our great friends and allies in the US – a nation that has given so much to the world – that now is not the time for war.The Right Hon Chris Smith is Labour MP for Islington South & Finsbury. How did it come to this, and so quickly? History can be a rollercoaster ride. But for all the markers along the way, it is still hard to understand how in 18 short months the ride has led from Osama bin Laden to Saddam Hussein; from a nightmarish day of terrorist attacks in the United States to an unprovoked war against a country that had nothing to do with those attacks. Now, as 200,000 of its troops stand poised to invade Iraq, with 40,000-plus from its faithful ally Britain alongside, attitudes have been transformed. America, or more accurately perhaps, the people who run America, have rarely been so mistrusted, disliked, even hated.”Nous sommes tous des Am?cains” ran the famous headline in Le Monde the next day Not any more.

Today the discourse between the US and its oldest ally France runs to puerile slanging matches, pitting the “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” mocked on late-night US television shows against “a small village populated by cretins”, as a political puppet show on French television has dubbed the White House.But these are trifles compared to the real collateral damage of the Iraq crisis. Nato, which in the wake of 11 September invoked for the first time a solidarity clause in support of a wounded America, last month suffered one of the most serious splits in its history over helping Turkey, another alliance member, prepare for a possible war. The European Union, yet again, has been shown up as powerless and divided.The worst fate of all perhaps awaits the United Nations, should the second resolution on Iraq, tabled by the US, Britain and Spain, fail to pass the Security Council, only for President George Bush and Tony Blair to attack Iraq regardless. The credibility of the UN would surely then be destroyed, as the lone superpower – which had never much cared for the place anyway – served notice that it would do as it pleased in the world.Again, one asks, how did it come to this? At one level the course may be simply charted. Iraq had been exercising important minds in the US and elsewhere, well before the terrorist attacks.

For a decade, British as well as American warplanes have been sparring with Iraqi air defences as they patrolled the northern and southern no-fly zones set up after the first Gulf war.In February 2001, barely a month after Mr Bush’s inauguration, Tony Blair travelled to Camp David to meet the new President for the first time. They discussed Iraq, which had been free of UN weapons inspectors since late 1998, and agreed Saddam Hussein remained a menace to his region and the world. Then came the attacks on New York and Washington.It is true to say 11 September changed the world. Certainly the attacks demonstrated a superpower’s vulnerability to a new type of enemy. But far more important for the rest of us, the wounded American giant resolved to use his awesome power as he chose, to resolve the problem once and for all.