FRASER NELSON WRITES IN THE SCOTSMAN:

Today, sober critics of America will be marching – fuelled by concern over what they see as an ill- educated cowboy visiting war on parts of the world previously at peace. The key to their mindset is their definition of war and peace.

There was, of course, no peace in Iraq while Saddam Hussein was using starvation as a weapon to kill hundreds of thousands of Shia infants and his goons were throwing enemies into torture chambers, en route to mass graves.

But these atrocities featured little on our television screens, thus making little impact on the public consciousness. To protesters, victims of dictatorship do not count in the way that the casualties of war count. They are blind to Arab-on-Arab oppression.

Using the crude mathematics of lives, the war in Iraq has already saved more than it has lost. Aid sent by Mr Bush, funded by the US taxpayer, has vaccinated four million Iraqis and fed 100,000 undernourished mothers.

In a country where one child in eight did not survive their fifth birthday, America is intervening. Aid replaces UN sanctions, which protesters say they preferred in place of war.

Saving lives by vaccination and healthcare can only hope to become as glamorous as the anti-war movement. In Britain, the wars against drugs, disease and poverty can only dream of arousing protests equivalent to today’s display in London.

Those callous protesters, so uncaring toward the poor and the sick.