BDiONU
You said, "Sorry but I don't see the relevance of the possible war on Iraq to NATS". Probably Fallows was alluding to the fact that the government seems toi have around £1 billion plus to spend on waging war on Iraq, but nothing to invest in the ATC infrastructure.
If I am wrong then I am sure that Fallows will elucidate. You must have a very narrow mind if you can't see the relevance of such a war to NATS. Did you work during the Gulf War? Traffic figures were dramatically lower, meaning a huge drop in revenue for NATS. It didn't "matter" quite as much then as we were a government quango and didn't have to pay our way. We are now firmly in the commercial world where NATS is required to make money to survive. The loss of revenue caused by a war would be crippling, and many airlines would go to the wall. A secondary factor would a huge hike in fuel prices which again would cause airlines to drastically cut back on their schedules, with a further consequent reduction in revenue. I hope you can see now that war with Iraq would have a very real impact on our livelihoods. Just pray that commonsense will prevail and a war can be averted.