THE US: The prediction by the US Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, that the international community would rally round in the event of an invasion of Iraq has been followed by a chorus of dissent around the world.
Comparing White House policy on Saddam Hussein to Churchill's warnings about Hitler, Mr Rumsfeld said: "It was not until each country got attacked that they said: 'Maybe Winston Churchill was right. Maybe that lone voice expressing concern about what was happening was right'."
He told 3,000 Marines at Camp Pendleton, near San Diego, that Iraq was a "vicious, dictatorial" regime. But he refused to add to what he called the "frenzy" of speculation over US plans.
"We do need to take some time and think these things through and consider them. These are important decisions." Mr Rumsfeld suggested that the declining support from US allies for an invasion would not deter the Bush administration.
"It is less important to have unanimity than it is to be making the right decision and doing the right thing, even though at the outset it may seem lonesome," he said. "Leadership in the right direction finds followers and supporters."
Meanwhile, international misgivings and outright opposition to an invasion continued to grow. "Whether Saddam Hussein remains or is removed from power is up to the Iraqi people," said Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal.
"It has never been shown in history ... that anybody removed from the outside and another person put in instead has made for the stability of the region," he told the BBC.
The Turkish Prime Minister, Mr Bulent Ecevit, said his country, another staunch US ally, had left the Americans in no doubt about its reservations.
"We have used every opportunity to tell our friends in the US administration we are opposed to military action against Iraq," Mr Ecevit told a news conference.
The German opposition unexpectedly joined the dissenters when Mr Edmund Stoiber, conservative candidate for chancellor in the September 22nd election, endorsed warnings from Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.
"The monopoly on the decision and action in this question lies with the United Nations," Mr Stoiber said.
In Britain, a poll published in yesterday's Guardian showed that 52 percent of Labour supporters believed Britain should not support US policy.
China, a permanent UN Security Council member, also opposed military action. "Using force or threats of force is unhelpful in solving the Iraq issue and will increase regional instability and tensions," China's Foreign Minister, Mr Tang Jiaxuan Tang, said in Beijing.
In Tokyo, visiting US Deputy Secretary of State, Mr Richard Armitage, said Washington was confident it could convince sceptical allies.
But Kyodo news agency quoted Mr Taku Yamasaki, secretary-general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, as saying, "If the US attacks alone it will produce distrust of the United States throughout the world. As an ally, we should oppose this."
In the Middle East, the Syrian Prime Minister, Mr Mohammed Mustafa Mero, said his country, along with Iraq and all Arabs, would view any US strike as part of "policies that seek more US hegemony and to inflict harm not just on the people of Iraq but the Arab nation as a whole".
Mr Mero, speaking during a meeting with the Iraqi Vice-President, Mr Taha Yassin Ramadan, called for the UN to resume dialogue with Iraq.
Speaking to The Irish Times in Dublin yesterday, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, said that Ireland, as a member of the UN Security Council, supported the position that, "Iraq must comply with Security Council resolutions regarding arms inspectors being allowed in and we hope that the efforts of the Secretary General of the UN will be successful. Diplomatic and political efforts, we hope, will resolve this problem." Noting that President Bush had said no decision had been taken in the matter, he continued, "We hope that in the interim we can find a solution where military action would not be appropriate."