The war leaders

The commander-in-chief of US Central Command who is leading the war from Qatar. Born in 1945 - his grandchildren call him Pooh after the bear - Franks grew up in Midland, Texas. It was no more than a scratty railroad halt in his youth, but then the Bush family found oil there and now it is wealthy. Franks joined the army in 1967, and was wounded three times in Vietnam. He led the war against al Qaida in Afghanistan and now steps into the shoes of Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf, the 1991 Gulf War leader. Asked about bin Laden's whereabouts, he said: "He's either inside Afghanistan or he's not." However, he does have a catchphrase: "Freedom is not free."

Tariq Aziz

Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, and Saddam's number two. With his white hair and soft voice, he is the reasonable face of Iraq. He is 66, a cigar smoker and a Roman Catholic. His religion accounts for his longevity: he has been at Saddam's side for two decades while those around him have been murdered for supposed disloyalty. Aziz's religion means that he will never have a powerbase in overwhelmingly Muslim Iraq and so he can never be a threat to the President. Aziz started as a journalist. He became editor of the Ba'ath Party newspaper which in the 1970s was very supportive of the Party's young deputy leader - Saddam.

Donald Rumsfeld

The US Secretary of Defence was at his desk in the Pentagon on 9/11 near where the plane struck and he bravely rushed to pull survivors from the wreckage. Rumsfeld, 70, became a navy pilot after leaving university and then, aged 30, entered Congress. He served under Richard Nixon before Gerald Ford made the 43-year-old the youngest ever defence secretary. Throughout his career, Rumsfeld has warned that the US was under threat. He is anti-international treaty, pro-Star Wars and pro-unilateral US action. He is very hardline Conservative. His motto is taken from a fellow Chicagoan, Al Capone: "You get more with a kind word and a gun than with a kind word alone."

The UK's military leaders

The head of the UK's armed forces is Chief of Defence Staff Admiral Sir Michael Boyce. Born in Cape Town, his 42-year Navy career began in 1961, and he has spent much of his time in submarines. He will retire in April when he turns 60, to be replaced by General Sir Michael Walker.

Air Marshal Brian Burridge is the UK National Contingent Commander which means he is in charge of the 43,000 UK troops in the Gulf. The 53-year-old authority on air power is taking on the role filled by General Sir Peter de la Billiere in the 1991 Gulf War.

In charge of the British army is General Sir Mike Jackson, the Chief of the General Staff. The 58-year-old father-of-three commanded British troops in the successful 1999 operation in Kosovo, where his cool manner and gravel voice earned him the nickname The Prince of Darkness.

Royal Marines Brigadier Jim Dutton has about 2,000 US Marines at his disposal - the first time since the Second World War that a Brit has been in charge of Americans. He is a veteran of the 1991 and Afghan campaigns.

Colin Powell

The US Secretary of State is an all-American hero: a black kid, born in Harlem in 1937 to Jamaican immigrant parents who grew up in the Bronx and became the US's top soldier and now top diplomat. He served two tours in Vietnam, beginning his rise. In 1989, Bush Senior made him the youngest and the first black man to be put in charge of the military. And so he led the 1991 Gulf War: but it was he who stopped his troops from storming to Baghdad.