GOD! WE COULD FIND OURSELVES IN A WORLD WAR!

A stark heading and one that I would not have written a week ago.

Events shift incredibly fast as nations move from diplomacy to military action. Intelligence reports will certainly be far more detailed than the good reporting that the international media is providing. So whilst the general public are caught off-guard by a dictator's flagrant disregard of the call for a ceasefire that he insists he is implementing, we find now, 24 hours on, that at the very moment of these pronouncements, he was doing the exact opposite. This of course will have been highlighted in the intelligence reports.

We are taking the right course of action. We are seeking to protect a civilian population from deliberate, planned and systematic slaughter, and so long as we do not allow ground troops to enter Libya, albeit to support the Libyan People, then we have a chance in helping the Libyan People secure democracy through self-determination.

But none of us should think that this is just "a little local skirmish". Enforcing a no fly zone in the Bosnian Serbian War did not prevent the Bosnian Serbs from slaughtering 8,000 Muslim men and boys!

We must remember the lessons of history. We must recall that the assassination of an Archduke in 1914 precipitated the Great War, and, 25 years later the invasion of Poland precipitated the Second World War. In each case, nations came to the aid of people being bullied and subjugated by a more powerful nation that, on the world stage, proclaimed peace, but behind the scenes, was doing what a dictator is doing today.

Oil is not at the centre of this current situation. The United States is rightly giving a supportive role. Britain and France are spearheading military action although obviously we have the superior technical expertise of our American Allies. And crucially, this international assistance is at the direct request and urging of Arabian States who, themselves, are prepared to participate in the military action.

But this is a potential powder keg. And when a national leader is no longer in full possession of his faculties, he becomes desperate and a menace to all. A desperate man resorts to desperate measures, and so it is absolutely right that the United Nations take very tough military action to help the Libyan People to remove this man from power.

As the former Chief of the Defence Staff, Lord West, pointed out earlier today - it would be very wise for those who seek to protect this man and help him to remain in power, to think very carefully about what just might befall them. To be on the receiving end of a massive military strike such as that which Britain and France are more than capable of delivering, is, to any right-minded person, a very sobering thought.

When I retired to bed last evening I did so thinking, naively, that we had averted disaster, that the very threat of such force had brought the man to his senses. This morning, my stomach hit my boots as I listened to the reports of just what this petty minded dictator has been doing to his people even these past 24 hours, and listening to his spokesman read out to the media his letters to President Obama, Prime Minister Cameron and President Sarkozy.

The UN must take swift, decisive action. Let us also remember that Russia and China are unsettled by these events.

Tnere is, however, reason for cautious optimism. Many Arab states, through the internet and twitter and facebook, have remarked upon the calmness and resolve of the British People. That whilst the world is used to seeing our House of Commons at times more like a boxing ring, but without the fighting, they now see something else. A United Kingdom, and a Government and Opposition standing united and in mutual support in dealing with this crisis.

Half a century ago, another lesson of history was referred to by the late Winston Churchill, which, loosely put, reminded the world that the British People are a curious people and that few can understand her mind; slow to take action and often at odds within, but put a great cause before the People, and they rise as one and will not back down until the task is finished.

We are no different today. We are an island people, and we understand only too well that our freedom from aggression, our democracy, our devolution, has come at a great price. But this opportunity for peoples elsewhere to face down dictatorships will resonate with the UK. And we have seen this quiet resolve, this determination to square up to dictators, and to help peoples in their self-determination, reflected in the British Prime Minister, Mr Cameron.

I stand with Her Majesty's Leader of the Opposition, Mr Ed Miliband, in his unequivocal support of the PM on the floor of the House yesterday.

Ian Bradley Marshall
LIVERPOOL
19 March 2011