Oh for the simple moral luxury of being opposed to this war. For then one is for peace: and is not peace a good thing? Whereas those of us who back the British and American military actions are clearly not in favour of peace; for how could we want peace when we back a war?
There is no simple answer to that - nor any simple answer to those who point to the already accumulating heap of civilian bodies, and ask us to justify those deaths. There is no justification; and there is no point in trying to provide it. Nor is the argument about remote strangers. Over a thousand Irish soldiers in British uniforms are in action in Iraq. Irish parents stand to lose their sons, Irish women their husbands.
So those of us who back the US-British-Australian forces in their war have no easy arguments to hand. The opponents of war have clean hands. We have bloody hands, and getting bloodier.
But what choice is there? Not what choice is there in a perfect, tyrantless world, but what choice is there in this real world, in which there is a tyrant, with whom we have all done deals, everyone - Irish, British, German, Russian, American, German? Those who argue that he should have been given more time deal with the hypotheses of the future.
This is a theoretical paradise where all things are possible. This is the paradise inhabited by the Catholic prelates who have successfully negotiated a deal protecting the Church from the financial consequences of what its priests have done in the past. Is it surprising that they have such faith in the future when they are so skilful in manipulating the past? This same paradise is inhabited by all those who say that there must be a better way.
Well, there certainly should be. But what is it and where is it? For those of us in the hateful position of backing the war must deal with the realities of the past and present. We deal with a dozen years of non-compliance with world will, of cheating and lying and murder. We know that Saddam is an unspeakable beast, a war criminal who has gassed thousands and caused the deaths of over a million-and-a-half people.
Moreover, we now know that we live in a world quite different from the one that any of us thought we were inhabiting, populated by zealots who see this life merely as a dismal prelude to the paradise that follows. They regard death while bringing about the mass murder of infidels such as us as a passport to that paradise.
These men are not driven by poverty, nor by any sense of personal injustice. They are driven by pure hatred; and that hatred feeds on any sense of weakness. And how are we to get out the appalling position we are now in without convincing our enemies that we are weak? How can this war be suspended with none of its objectives achieved without it being a victory for Saddam? That we should never have got into this position is beyond dispute. But arguments about what the world should have done to prevent a war are now an undergraduate luxury. Though it must be said, we had our day on the Security Council, and I don't recall anyone in Ireland coming up with a real solution to this imminent crisis when we were in such a position of influence.
There is a real war going on in which good men and women on both sides, and many Iraqi children, are being killed. It is all perfectly horrible. Yet we care about the dead infants; Saddam doesn't. He has killed thousands before and will do again, if he feels so inclined. So how do we get out of this without perfectly vile consequences? Can you imagine what a catastrophe it would be if the Americans were to call a unilateral ceasefire, with Saddam still in power, and with fundamentalist terrorists queuing up to attack the Great Satan? I would be very happy to hear real alternatives to a successful prosecution of this war - alternatives which do not deal with might-have-beens from the past, but solely with the present. I have heard none. I cannot be neutral when democracies take on a beast like Saddam. Nor am I inclined to be when Irishmen are in the field, as so many are in the Irish Guards and the Royal Irish Regiment.
I doubt if any Iraqi commanding officer speaks as Lt-Col Tim Collins from Belfast did when addressing the Royal Irish: "We go to liberate, not conquer. We will not fly our flags in this country. We are entering Iraq to free a people, and the only flag that will be flown in that ancient land is their own. Show respect for them. . .
"It is a big step to another human life. It is not to be done lightly. I know of men who have taken life needlessly in other conflicts. I can assure you they live with the mark of Cain upon them. If someone surrenders to you then remember they have that right in international law, and ensure that one day they will go home to their families. The ones who wish to fight, well, we aim to please."
God send those boys home safely soon: and bring peace and justice to the land where they are today risking their lives.