You have to laugh at the dhimmi-bleating from the Government partly funded "DEMOS" think-tank which has cooly decided that Muslims are being driven into the arms of "violent extremists" 9 by official attempts to engage with them after the 7 July bombs. (That would be the July 7 acts of mass murder on the London transport system by..erm..devout Muslims) Yes, their love of Jihad, their pitiful ant-Semitism, their enduring contempt for Britain is…OUR FAULT. Who would have guessed that a left-wing think tank would end up thinking it’s all our fault?

But it gets even better. Get this. The report calls for "community relations to be at the heart of security policy". Oops – there was me thinking that stopping acts of Jihad might have been quite a good heart for security policy – and killing Jihadists would be EVEN better, but Demos has carried out the hard work and they know better. That’s why they conclude that…"The grievances that are felt in some parts of the Muslim community about foreign policy, and especially about Iraq, are pretty cogent and pretty convincing", we know we are in the presence of grateness. 

If only we would consult with Muslims before determining foreign policy, Demos pleads! Oh, and how about making it clear that were it not for Israel’s irritating insistence on the right to existence on Muslims might be a lot less angry. 

I see Kofi Annan has dropped by the BBC as he conducts the latest leg of his "Farewell to bribes" tour 2006 and pronounces that "life for the average Iraqi was now worse than under the regime of Saddam Hussein."

How interesting! I guess that must mean that all those hundreds of thousands of marsh Arabs that Saddam so loved that he drained their homelands so they could starve to death are only FAKING their relief the tyrant is gone! Yes, and all those Kurds against whom he used weapons of mass destruction are only PRETENDING that they are satisfied he is gone. For these "average Iraqis" life is immeasurably better. Kofi knows best, right?

I wonder precisely which "ordinary Iraqis" are now much worse off?

Well, there are the remnants of his tyrannical regime – the former Tikriti mafia that now consist the Saddamite rump- who are far from happy! And then there is Al Queda who are most unhappy about the Great Satan being in one of their lairs.

So I guess Kofi is showing the political left’s idea of "real courage" by speaking up on behalf of Saddam’s spawn and the Jihadist brigades of suicide bombers. And to be fair, that has proven to be his forte! He is the "one true voice" that will speak up on behalf of murderers, tyrants, terrorists, indeed all those who hate liberty and freedom.  Mind you, when it comes to genocide, such as that practised in Darfur, well, as he says himself,  the UN lacks "the will" to do anything about it. In this regard, Kofi’s career is complete. He stood back and watched a mIllion people die in the killing fields of Rwanda – and he has quietly slumbered whilst tens of thousands died in Darfur. What a disgrace this man is.

Interesting to read that progress has been made in Riga, ‘if only because the political leaders have conceded that while all have soldiers deployed in Afghanistan, some are engaged in wholesale combat, while others are having a pretty quiet time’.

‘The Canadians, in particular, have been laying down the law about other Nato members sharing more of the risks. Canada has suffered a large number of casualties, even more than the British in Helmand, and resent it when alliance members have failed to come to their aid when facing relentless attacks by the Taleban’

Id agree with that sentiment – why is it most consistently left to the British American Canadian and Australian (and Dutch in this case) forces to undertake the heavylifting in what all have agreed is a battle we must win. At one point i seem to recall it being noted that British forces witheld positions in Helmand and fought off the Taleban in one of the longest battles in British military history.

In extremis? The whole of Afghanistan is already ‘in extremis’.

‘apart from the moves over national caveats, only a handful of member states offered more troops and equipment for Afghanistan, enough to reduce the present 15 per cent shortfall in capability to ten per cent.

General Jones said that a shortfall in capability in a peacekeeping mission was one thing, but a capability gap in an operation where soldiers were being killed in combat was potentially more dangerous’

Quite. Get in there.

I continually harbour grave doubts about Pakistan’s ACTUAL status in the war on terror. Is it friend or foe, or both?

I read today that Pakistan’s foreign minister, Khurshid Kasuri, has said in private briefings to foreign ministers of some Nato member states that the Taliban are winning the war in Afghanistan and Nato is bound to fail. He has advised against sending more troops. Other Pakistani officials are suggesting that NATO accepts an Afghanistani Government that includes the Taliban, and that excludes Hamid Karzai!

It’s also instructive to read that Lt Gen Ali Mohammed Jan Orakzai, governor of the volatile North West Frontier Province has stated publicly that the US, Britain and Nato have already failed in Afghanistan. "Either it is a lack of understanding or it is a lack of courage to admit their failures," he said recently. Gen Orakzai insists that the Taliban represent the Pashtun population, Afghanistan’s largest and Pakistan’s second largest ethnic group, and they now lead a "national resistance" movement to throw out Western occupation forces, just as there is in Iraq.

These are ALL siren voices. The Taliban should be crushed, not accommodated. Those like Orakzai should be given the chance to experience a few well-aimed daisycutters. Those Pakistani officials now briefing in favour of the Taliban need to be sacked or imprisoned.

Of course there may well be some "realists" about (Cue Fabulous Baker Boys?) who have some empathy for these surrender suggestions? Perhaps we can enlist the help of the Taliban to quell violence, in the same way as we’re going to enlist the help of the Mad Mullahs to quell violence?

If we lose our will to crush the Taliban, rather like we are losing our will to crush the Jihadi in Iraq, then beware. Envigorated, the Islamofascists will come for us in their swarms, sensing our institutionalised weakness dressed up in the empty rhetoric of "realism." 

I read this story in horror. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani (Interesting surname, got a kinda ring about it!) has called on Iran to provide "comprehensive help" to improve his country’s security situation. Talabani arrived following a two-day delay, caused by a curfew that was imposed after bomb attacks in Baghdad killed more than 200 people. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told him Iran would do what it could. 

I bet.

By embracing Iran, there is no chance that democracy and liberty can prevail in Iraq since the Mad Mullah’s view such values as Superman views Green Kryptonite! By embracing the driving force behind the axis-of-evil, Iraq will fall into Iranian driven terror. 

Well, I’m not in the least surprised to read that a draft report on strategies for Iraq which will be debated in the USA by a bipartisan commission beginning Monday, urges an aggressive regional diplomatic initiative that includes direct talks with Iran and Syria. The date for retreat is not set but don’t worry – the Jihadists will get the message. Nudge Nudge.

As for talking to Iran and Syria – this is entirely in line with the lunatic notion that these nations can somehow "stabilise" Iraq and help the nascent Iraqi democracy establish itself. Naturally both Iran and Syria are truly deeply and madly devoted to the removal of any vestige of democracy in the Middle East and it looks like the Iraq Study Group’s report – fronted by James Baker (the man who abandoned ordinary Iraqis to Saddam’s tender mercies in 1992 as the mass graves testified) – will ensure that the axis of evil prevails.  When the unreal is presented as realism, we know the plot has well and truly been lost. 

Iran has been accelerating its programme of HANGING those unfortunates who disagree with the Mad Mullah’s regime. The shocking details of what is going on in Iran at this very time make stomach-churning reading but they provide us with further proof as to just how EVIL this terror regime is.  Can we all agree on that?

AND YET  – Tony Blair talks of engaging with Iran as a "stabilising force" in the region, echoing the thoughts of the French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy who also claimed that Iran is "a great country, a great people, a great civilisation which plays a stabilising role in the region."

I suppose when you head towards the gallows for the crime of expressing disagreement with the Mullahs that "greatness" may not be so apparent. Whether it is political dissidents, people who are gay, adulterers …Iran favours the NOOSE as a way of dispensing justice. 

We are behaving towards Iran just as we did towards Germany in the 1930’s. The spirit of appeasement prevails and evil grows stronger.

U.S. Army Capt. Cindy McPherson examines an Iraqi boy’s ears during a medical and humanitarian mission in Baghdad, Iraq, on Nov. 9, 2006. McPherson is a physician’s assistant with the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team. DoD photo by Master Sgt. Mike Buytas, U.S. Air Force

A British sergeant of the 1st Battalion, The Black Watch, shares his Tamoshanta with Ali, one of the local children from the town of Azubayr, during a soft patrol of the town.

Nov. 7, 2006. Iraqi citizens offer beverages to U.S. Army Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas, in Kanan, Iraq.

Col. Adil, chief of Maghdad, Iraq, police department, and U.S. Army Soldiers of Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division pass out backpacks full of food, water, and school supplies to students at the primary elementary school in Musqed al agsa, Maghdad, Iraq, Nov. 2, 2006.

Earlier this year there had been high rain fall, causing flooding in the town of Safwan near the Kuwait border. The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards were quickly on the scene to help. The unit supplied boxes of water and the town Mayor helped in the middle of the night to stock the town hall in preparation. The casualty had been pulled from a collapsed building, caused by the heavy rainfall. He is put in the back of a military vehicle and taken to British hospital for treatment.

May 2006. An officer from HQ 16 Air Assault Brigade, shows the very eager welcoming children of a small village, pictures he had just taken of them. Provisional Reconstruction team (PRT) patrol to the south of Lashkar Gar in order to discuss various matters with members of the village. This image was taken during Operation Herrick IV, the UK’s deployment into Helmand Province of Southern Afghanistan.

Operation Herrick IV saw the development of the Helmand Task Force in the province, which saw the cross Governmental Provincial Reconstruction Team set up in Lashkar Gar, to help the Afghan Government build strong governmental institutions, security and create jobs. The Task Force was made up of 3300 troops from the British Military, with the majority being taken from 16 Air Assault Brigade.

A judo coaching session for boys and girls in Kabul, Afghanistan, conducted by a female Flt Lt serving in the RAF. After seeing an article in "The World of Judo" magazine, about the state of judo in Afghanistan, she decided she could help.

A former GB international, a qualified coach and the captain of the RAF ladies judo team she contacted the President of the Afghan Judo Federation, Zakaria Assadi, to ascertain what could be done. The result was a two-day training package in Kabul and the donation of 30 mats from the UK’s Royal Air Force Judo Association and £2,000 worth of judo suits from Fighting Films, a UK-based martial arts equipment supplier.

The Flt Lt is an RAF officer serving with the British detachment at Kandahar in Southern Afghanistan. The British presence leading NATO’s International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) in the region is tasked with stabilising life south of the capital Kabul as well as regenerating society within Kandahar and neighbouring Helmand Province.

U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Kim Kaufman gives a dose of de-wormer medication to an Afghan girl during a village medical outreach in Maywand District, Afghanistan, on Jan. 27, 2006.

Pretty cool to see these women in particular sending such positive messages to these kids.

A Lance Corporal from 9 Parachute Squadron, Royal Engineers working with colleagues and local Afghan tradesmen to renovate a school closed and destroyed by the Taliban during its period of power in Afghanistan.

British troops were deployed in Afghanistan on Operation FINGAL under the auspices of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). The mission was to assist the interim administration with security and stability.

Curious villagers watch as US Army Capt. Jason Toole (right) and Spc. Nick Cannole evaluate the results of a CAT scan of a man who suffered a stroke in Makawa, Afghanistan, on April 15, 2006. Tool, the commander of Alpha Company and Cannole, a medic from Alpha Company, are assigned to the 3rd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 10th Mountain Division.

With the "realists" in Washington now leading policy on Iraq ("Cut and Run" by any other name) who would have figured that the Jihadists and Saddamites would respond to this by..erm…being even more violent?   I mean, it’s such an UNFORESEEN reaction, isn’t it? Not. Appeasement only encourages the Jihadists to be  even more violent but the fabulous Baker Boys and their media handmaidens don’t get it.  As far as I am concerned, if we don’t seek victory … and that means CRUSHING the Jihadi ….then only defeat beckons. And with defeat, the Caliphate grows stronger, more menacing…