The mood in the US: Americans are resigned but grim as they prepare for war, reports Conor O'Clery from New York
In the United States the first casualty of the coming war has been the colour yellow. It has been scrapped and replaced by orange, the second-highest ranking in the national colour-coded alert system. The danger of terrorist attack is now officially "high". We've been at orange twice before so it's not new, and nothing happened, and we went back to yellow.
What is new is the sense that this time there really is bad news just ahead, whether in the form of an attack on the US or on Americans abroad by an updated official list of villains - Iraq's state agents, al-Qaeda and disgruntled individuals - or in the shape of American casualties among the force of 250,000 massed in the Gulf region.
People with relatives in the armed forces know that they may be hanging out yellow ribbons before it is all over, though the expectation of military casualties is generally low.
A Gallup poll yesterday showed that only about a third of Americans predict that the number of all people killed in the war, Iraqis and Americans, will be "high". Almost six in 10 expect there to be no more than a "moderate" number of deaths, 37 per cent "moderate", 21 per cent "low" and 4 per cent "almost none".
So the mood of the country can best be described as grim and resigned but not full of foreboding. The Homeland Security Secretary, Tom Ridge - widely satirised for his recommendation to use duct tape and plastic against chemical atacks during the last orange alert - told us yesterday that we are now under the protection of Operation Liberty Shield, which may sound like an insurance company in competition with Saddam & Sons but is in fact a co-ordinated security plan for the US at war.
This involves state governments deploying the National Guard at critical locations such as petroleum, chemical and nuclear facilities, increased border and airport guards, more escorts for passenger ships, new flight restrictions over cities, and - this was the most scary stuff - increased monitoring of imported foodstuffs for poisons and a close watch on unusual disease patterns.
In Washington those parts of Pennsylvania Avenue and 15th and 17th Streets near the White House have been closed and the popular White House tours suspended. In New York we have our own new security plan called Operation Atlas. This involves several new measures, such as dogs being led through crowded subway trains to detect suspicious smells, which at rush hour presents a truly formidable olfactory challenge, armed guards outside churches and concrete bollards dumped on pavements to protect financial houses from car bombs.
At important sites from the Plaza Hotel on Central Park to Wall Street downtown police in robo-cop black stroll around cradling fearsome automatic weapons. Among the special forces deployed to protect the city from terrorists are Hercules (heavily armed emergency service unit officers), Archangel, whose personnel guard against biological and chemical assaults, and Samson, an elite team using heavy equipment.
As elsewhere the reaction in New York to President Bush's ultimatum has been one of resignation rather than the extremes of enthusiasm or outrage. The war has been coming for so long that many people want it over now. Almost one in three people expressed relief.
This, combined with the natural surge of support for Americans about to go into battle, may explain why the Gallup poll found more than 2-to-1 support for the ultimatum while a third of those who approve of Bush's decision said they were unsure about the merits of war.
The support for the war is also based on an expectation by four out of five people polled that the US will win. But only 53 per cent believe war with Iraq will make the United States safer. Overall, 66 per cent of Americans approve Bush's decision while 30 per cent disapprove. As the minutes tick away - or blink away on TV screens which now feature electronic "countdown" clocks - the debate over war has been silenced on Capitol Hill.
Politicians from both parties lined up behind the President. The Senate Minority Leader, Tom Daschle, who on Monday said Mr Bush had "failed so miserably" at diplomacy that the US was on the brink of war, yesterday fell into line. He assured the President: "Democrats and Republicans will be unanimous in our strong support for our troops and for ensuring that they have all the tools and resources needed to be successful."
This didn't stop the White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, calling Daschle's remarks "out of bounds", "off base" and "inconsistent with his pledge not to politicse the war", though he backed off his criticisms under a barrage of reporters' questions about the White House quashing debate. The country's tolerance for opposition will be tested on the streets in the coming days.
Anti-war demonstrators have called for protests on the first day of war, including sit-downs, bicycle fleets in city centres, college walk-outs and blockades of federal and military buildings. More than 1,000 people have pledged to participate in a walk-out from Harvard University. In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, protesters plan to bang pots and pans.
Many groups plan "die-ins", where activists lie prostrate on streets to simulate war casualties. In Columbia, South Carolina, activists plan to show their feelngs about homeland security plans by plastering a federal building with duct tape and plastic sheeting.