FOR those who have lived through a world war, there must be disbelief at the nature of modern battles.

They could never have countenanced the possibility that, one day, wars would be fought from a distance with the precision of a surgeon, and unfold before our eyes on live television.

Blink and it might be a computer game played out in the comfort zones of millions of homes around the world.

The very notion that a "target of opportunity" - Saddam Hussein himself perhaps - can be pinpointed through a mobile phone signal by a computer in space, then attacked by guided missiles, is light years from the beaches of Dunkirk only a few decades ago.

But, for all its "surgical" strikes and talk of history's first "clean" war, the reality of what is happening in Iraq is, of course, truly terrifying.

Targets may be pinpointed and hit with unerring accuracy but that does not remove the fear from the people of Baghdad, who find themselves, through no fault of their own, at the mercy of the most powerful war machine history has known.

We must not forget that stark reality as we sit thousands of miles away in England, where we can watch television, play computer games, and go about our lives without dreading the wail of sirens signalling that an attack is just 20 minutes off.

The opening, highly selective shots of the conflict have underlined the position made clear from the outset by Tony Blair: that our quarrel - such an inadequate word in the wretched circumstances - is not with the Iraqi people but with the regime which governs them.

We must always remember that and try to imagine what it would be like if the places where we live were subjected to bombing raids, surgical or otherwise.

The world must pray that the very precise target of a murderous dictator like Saddam Hussein is cut out as swiftly as possible to minimise the civilian casualties, which remain inevitable in any war.

21/03/2003