The bombing of Baghdad by US and British aircraft last night marks an important affirmation by the new Bush administration that while its pre occupations may be domestic it is not afraid of using force on the world stage.
White House sources say the decision to bomb was made by the President on Thursday, before his trip to Mexico, in an escalation of the almost daily clashes that have been taking place between coalition aircraft and the Iraqi air defence system in the country's no-fly zone.
The move marks the first attack north of the no-fly zone's 33rd parallel in two years, but is being justified as a self-defence measure to protect current patrolling actions rather than a prelude to more intensive attacks on Baghdad.
A Pentagon spokesman said last night that gradually escalating threats to allied planes had left them with "no choice" and that the targets attacked had been picked because of their remoteness from non-military sites.
The Iraqi defences south of the 33rd parallel had been substantially neutralised by the coalition forces and so Baghdad had sought refuge in what it thought was a safe haven, he said.
The five command and control "nodes" were between five and 20 miles from Baghdad. He said their initial assessment of the raid was that it had been carried out "efficiently and effectively" but bomb damage assessment was not yet available.
The move reflects a determination of the Bush administration to maintain a tough posture over Iraq.
Meanwhile Britains's Defence Minister, Mr Geoff Hoon, has claimed the attack was to protect the lives of their aircrews patrolling the region.
Mr Hoon said Britain and the US had no apologies to make. "Under international law, we are perfectly entitled to defend ourselves. We are entitled to attack them when they threaten our aircraft as they have been doing."
On Wednesday, the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, spent more than an hour with the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who is scheduled to hold talks with the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Mr Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, at the end of the month about ending the stalemate over UN sanctions and weapons inspections.
"I hope the Iraqi representative comes with new information that will show their willingness and desire to comply with the UN resolutions and become a progressive member of the world community again," the Secretary of State told reporters after the meeting.
Iraq has demanded an end to sanctions imposed after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait and has backing from Arab nations, France, Russia and China.
Significant Irish figures have recently also been calling for an end to sanctions and a vote at the Security Council on the issue will be seen as an interesting test of Irish independence from the US.
But Iraq has refused to allow the return of UN inspectors, who must verify its claims that its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons have been destroyed before sanctions can be lifted. The inspectors pulled out ahead of US and British air strikes in December 1998.
The Bush administration had criticised the Clinton administration for being too soft on Iraq and not doing enough to bring about the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and moved only two weeks ago to free cash for the Iraqi opposition.
But Mr Powell took a more conciliatory tone in his comments on Wednesday. "Our goal to make sure that Iraq complies with the arms control agreements it entered into, and let's move on beyond this," he said.
"What they have to do is get rid of the weapons of mass destruction that we know they have been developing and have had over the years," he said. "The initiative should be in Baghdad for them to do what is required and what is right."
A leading figure in the Russian military condemned the air raids and accused Washington of acting like the world's policeman.
The strikes "make it clear for Russia that the United States has assumed the role of an international gendarme", the Itar-Tass news agency quoted Col-Gen Leonid Ivashov, head of the military's foreign relations department, as saying.
