Greenpeace anti-war protestors paint the words 'No War' onto the British supply ship Magdalena Green

LONDON, February 7 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A British airman captured during the Gulf War warned Friday, February 7, that any attack on Baghdad without public support could leave troops psychologically scarred, just as U.S. soldiers were after Vietnam, a London newspaper reported.

Pilot John Peters, who along with his navigator John Nichol, was captured by Iraqis when their Tornado bomber was shot down during the 1991 Gulf conflict, told the Daily Mirror it would be wrong for Britain to go to war without public backing, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

"The general public feeling is that we are not sure we're doing the right thing. No one wants to go to war without a sense that your nation supports you.

"If the nation ends up damning the troops, it will be Vietnam all over again and it will psychologically scar our forces," warned Peters, who retired from the air force two years ago.

His comments came the day after British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned that Britain's public would need much persuading to back a war in the absence of a second UN resolution.

"If there were a second UN resolution, then I think people would be behind me. I think if there is not, then there is a lot of persuading to do," Blair told a televised debate broadcast by the BBC.

Peters said he was very uneasy about Britain's push for war.

"(Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein is an evil man and he operates an evil regime but in my view we have not been given enough reasons to attack a sovereign state.

"We need to be convinced that Saddam has got weapons that are a direct threat to our security," Peters added.

According to recent polls conducted in the U.S. and Britain, majority of Britons and Two thirds of Americans oppose a unilateral attack against Iraq without UN approval.

An anti-war protester wearing an effigy-mask of British Prime Minister, holds a mock bomb as he stands outside the perimeter fence of the U.S. Air Force base in Fairford, England

A majority of Britons believe Saddam Hussein does not represent a sufficient threat to justify a war with the country, according to a poll to be broadcast Monday, January 13.

Blair has been facing a series of tough hurdles as he seeks to win over public and party opinion - and hold on to cabinet unity - in relation to his Iraq strategy.

The latest hurdle represents in the opposition from more than half of his own cabinet if he tries to involve British troops in a U.S.-led war on Iraq that lacks the backing of the United Nations, the British daily The Guardian reported Wednesday, January 15.

The opposing ministers insist there has to be an overt U.N. mandate substantiated by credible evidence that President Saddam has hidden weapons of mass destruction, asking Blair to stick to UN and supporting a second resolution before any attack on Iraq.

Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon on Thursday, February 6, announced Britain would boost its total deployment of warplanes in the Gulf and Turkey to some 100 over the next few weeks, in preparation for possible military action against Iraq.

The force includes Tornado F3 interceptors, Tornado GR4, Jaguar and Harrier fighter bombers, Tristar refuelling aircraft, Hercules transporters, and helicopters, and will be backed up by some 7,000 support personnel.

Britain has already committed 30,000 troops, 120 tanks and a 17-vessel naval task force led by the aircraft carrier Ark Royal to a potential U.S.-led war.