Spiked

"The impact that terrorism has on society is determined by the authorities under target and how they deal with the threat, rather than by the terrorists' outrages." [more]

"The British peace movement's alternative to war has historically been a patriotic endorsement of Western intervention - with consequences that are no less dire for those on the receiving end." [more]

"So what is the state of post-Taliban Afghanistan? Is it a human rights triumph where freedoms have been regained, or just a mess? A security nightmare that needs heavy policing, or a state with some non-threatening security issues? One thing is certain: the Bush administration's contradictory statements about Afghanistan over the past two months show that US policy is driven less by concern for democracy and human rights, than by political expediency." [more]

"So what did happen to the al-Qaeda and Taliban forces in Shah-i-Kot? One report claimed that 'the absence ofÖany sign of the enemy, dead or alive, raised suspicions that many fighters had escaped before the offensive had begun [on 1 March]' (32). So those 3250 bombs might have been dropped on largely uninhabited territory that may have been vacated by the enemy two weeks previously? That wouldn't be a first for the Americans, who spent much of January bombing caves in the Zhawar Kili region of southern Afghanistan, even though most al-Qaeda members had left, in an attempt to 'destroy al-Qaeda's infrastructure'." [more]