The start of this war against Iraq has had leaders around the world jumping to the microphones..
Russia's Vladimir Putin.. says this is unjustified..
Jaques Chirac.. expresses Gallic regret this began without UN backing.. irony's a strong suit with that man..
China says the action violated the principles of international law..
The Vatican said it was 'deeply pained'..
Little from the Middle East surprisingly.. Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi condemned the 'unjustifyable and illegitimate attack' on their neighbour..
But.. on the other hand.. Austrailia..Japan.. the Philippines..South Korea all supported the incursion.. saying the world could not kowtow to a petty dictator..
Having said that.. anti-war demonstrations took place today in Athens..Cairo.. in Australia and Indonesia.. the latter having the worlds largest Muslim population by the way..
The political posturing will continue.. uncomfortable albeit.. until there is evidence one way or the other concerning the posession of restricted weaponry by Saddam..
This, in some small amount, has already been demonstrated by the launch of what's now said to be two SCUD long-range missiles into Kuwait this morning..
Oh.. and by the way.. officially the first ground force action took place at 11:15amGMT.. when British forces returned fire with mortars.. on an Iraqi anti aircraft position..