According to this piece in the SMH, sourced from the UK Telegraph and Guardian (admirable balance there) Britain is moving to delay war until the end of year. The analysis in the article confirms almost precisely the one I have been putting forward on this topic.

It’s increasingly clear that a US declaration of war, without a return to the UNSC, runs the risk an embarrassing fiasco, with key allies like Britain, Turkey and perhaps even Australia, suddenly finding they have urgent engagements elsewhere. Even Kuwait and Qatar, generally assumed to be safely in the bag, have not made firm commitments – a British pullout could give them the escape hatch they’ve obviously been looking for.

Another noteworthy development is the US plan for postwar reconstruction which calls for the US military to share power with a civilian, preferably UN, administrator. It’s hard to see how this can work if the UN is bypassed.

The only case for immediate action is the ‘war by timetable’ argument – the US has mobilised for a February war, so February it must be. This kind of thinking led to disaster in 1914, and will do so again.

(Thanks to Jack Strocchi for alerting me to this piece).