John Nichol: I was about to fight and possibly to die. I felt fear, anxiety and physically sick before going into battle

When our forces went into Iraq in 1991, I was flying into battle in a Tornado at 600 miles an hour, 400 feet above the desert floor, heading towards an Iraqi air base.

It was the early days of operation Desert Storm. Everything was going as planned until the attack itself, when things began to fall apart. The attack failed, and as we exited the target area my £20m Tornado was blasted from the sky by an Iraqi surface-to-air missile and transformed into 20 tons of metal in seconds.

I ejected and landed in the desert but was captured and dragged off to Baghdad. After three days of brutal interrogation I was put on Iraqi television and the pictures of me and my pilot were flashed around the world and, although I knew nothing about it at the time, they became one of the abiding media images of the war. As I watch events unfold today I can scarcely believe that we are still fighting the same conflict.

Remember that it is politicians who start wars, not the military. And in the same way, it is only our politicians who can truly finish a war. In 1991 a coalition of the world's armies won the war to evict Iraq from Kuwait, but sadly, the world's politicians lost the subsequent peace.

I have had reservations, not only about the reasons for going to war, but also about the long-term ramifications of our actions; not just for Iraq itself, but for the whole of the Muslim world.

I'm sure that many of our servicemen and women will have been listening to the debates of politicians over this war and taking the arguments on board. Remember, soldiers, sailors and airmen are not robots. They read the papers, they are educated and know what's happening. Soldiers today are much more wired up to the outside world than we were 12 years ago. In some messes and camps they even have 24-hour news channels.

And in many ways the military needs the media as much as the media needs the military. A war will not only be fought in the oilfields of Iraq but over the world's airwaves.

But some things remain the same for soldiers when they go into battle. Last letters will have now been written. Final telephone calls will have been made.

Politicians haven't changed much either. It always brings a wry smile when I see pictures of politicians photographed on those supposedly morale-boosting visits to the front. I remember those visits myself. We listened politely and then got on with the job. As troops cross the border, none of those distractions will matter to them.

So how does it feel to be in the midst of military action? On the one hand, it is a time of extreme excitement. People join the military these days knowing they will almost certainly see action. It is a job they are trained to do and although I know few people in the armed forces who I would describe as warmongers, it is a job that they want to prove they can do. This is their opportunity. Their sense of comradeship and professional pride will be palpable. In one sense it is what everything in your life in the military is about.

But no one in the military is superhuman. I remember trepidation, anxiety and even fear going into battle. I also remember feeling physically sick when I thought about what the coming days might bring.

I was about to fight and possibly die. The question I asked myself was: "Am I up to it?" It's a question I feel sure many of our servicemen and women will be asking today.

So, will this war be over quickly? Military commanders always plan for the shortest possible conflict. Indeed, many commentators are predicting that troops will be on the outskirts of Baghdad in a matter of days. But of course, in war nothing ever goes entirely as planned. The best scenario is a total capitulation of Saddam Hussein's army and a peaceful entry into Baghdad. The truly nightmarish scenario is of sustained resistance, street-to-street fighting in Iraqi cities and perhaps worst of all, the use of chemical weapons by the Iraqis. The military always wants the best scenario but must always, and always does, plan for the worst.

The arguments are over. No matter how difficult, our service men and women will have put their fears, and reservations to one side. The solution of the Iraqi crisis has again left the hands of politicians and has become the practical business of the military.

John Nichol is a former RAF navigator. He is now an author and military analyst for ITV News. His book 'The Last Escape', published by Penguin, costs £20