We must all work to rebuild the crumbling international consensus

In this context, for the peace movement to simply condemn the UN for pandering to America's might (in the increasingly likely event it caves) will do even greater harm to our chances of rebuilding a harmonious world into the future.

Instead, we must regard such a breakdown, should it occur, not as the international community's death knell but as its low point, a rallying call for a fight to reassert a global consensus.

If the UN is forced to approve action in Iraq, it must do so as the leader of a peace-keeping mission, with the explicit role of disarming Saddam.

If the operation is brief, we must pressure the UN to assert control over the reconstruction, allaying those who believe this is all about America's thirst for oil by ensuring these resources remain in the hands of the Iraqi people.

If it drags on, we must pressure the UN Security Council to manage its mandate, continually pushing the warring parties towards peace. Even as the United States stomps over it, we must continue to assert the rights of the United Nations.

In fighting the USA's intervention in Iraq, the peace movement must also begin to wage its own culture war, where individual citizens join forces around the globe to assert the right of international bodies to temper the excesses of individual nations.

Out of the wreckage that looms, this must become a launching pad for a broader dialogue about the rules that should cover our globalised world - core labour standards, core environmental standards, limits on corporate excess - to fight the biggest threat to world peace, the widening gap between rich and poor and the resentment, extremism and violence it fuels.

It started last weekend when unions joined hundreds of thousands of citizens worldwide to elevate an international consensus ahead of the will of the richest.