Twelve years ago, Alistair McNeish was on board a Royal Navy submarine in the Persian Gulf taking part in the first Gulf War.

Today, he is in Bermuda working as a recruiting consultant, although he admits that part of him wishes he was making a contribution to Britain's war effort in the current conflict.

Mr. McNeish was an officer on a "Hunter Killer" submarines involved in supporting covert operations in the first Gulf War: "The sorts of things that you don't hear about on the news."

Mr. McNeish was also actively involved in Bosnia before he left the Navy in 1995. He is still on the active reserve list.

He has friends in the Royal Marines and the Royal Navy who are serving in the Gulf now.

Based on his experience of the last Gulf War, he said early expectations of a short war may have been "overly optimistic".

"This time the Iraqis are fighting on Iraq sovereign territory. Moreover, the coalition does not have the same levels of support at home and internationally as they did last time."

A further problem will be the difficulties in identifying soldiers.

"There appears to be a problem of troops fighting out of uniform. The coalition forces need to engage the enemy outside of Baghdad, preferably in the desert. Otherwise they will lose their competitive advantage of technology and military might. The fight is best kept in the open."

He said one positive development has been the capture by coalition forces forces of airfields outside Baghdad: "If the situation escalates, the importance of the airbases to the west of Baghdad will increase as a supply route, but also to bring in men under arms."

He thinks that non-Arab populations such as Kurds in the North and West and Muslim Shi'ites in the South may be wary of supporting the coalition forces: "Last time they did not get the support they needed after they were encouraged to rise up against Saddam Hussein. That's when he used chemical weapons. They need to be convinced that the coalition will see it through this time."

In March, 1991 the Kurds and southern Shi'ites rose up in response to a call by President Bush to rise up against the dictator, but Hussein was then allowed to brutally crush the revolt, although the US and its allies did help to establish a Kurdish safe haven in the north.

Some experts havw arfued that if the US had intervened more forcefully then, it might not be having to deal with Saddam Hussein today"

Mr. McNeish's own experiences leave him in no doubt about Saddam Hussein's regime: "At the end of the last Gulf War I was involved in the mop-up operation. I was in Kuwait for a couple of months and saw first hand the vicious nature of what was inflicted. That tends to shape your view."

He said the submarine service is already likely to have been involved in the conflict, providing support to special forces, launching Tomahawk missiles and giving protection to naval forces, especially aircraft carriers.

On board the submarines, the atmosphere is likely to be calm. "They spend so long doing operations and practising for these situations that they probably won't mind using that training."

Some of the forces have been out in the Gulf for six months, he said. "Like anything, you can go off the boil. It is the responsibility of the commander to make sure that they remain prepared."

Asked whether it felt strange not to be involved in the present military action, he said: "It does, to be honest. Having been though the training I have, having the experience I have, there is the sense that I could be making a contribution."

Watching the war from afar, he said US frustration with France and Germany may be fairly justified considering that they defended Western Europe throughout the Cold War.