Letters | 9 February 2008

Nip terror in the bud

Sir: Correlli Barnett would have us believe Con Coughlin is suffering from paranoia and describes George Bush’s ‘war on terror’ as stale rhetoric (Letters, 2 February). One wonders what ailment Correlli Barnett suffers from — perhaps ‘paranoiac denial’ is a fair diagnosis. Could he inform us which countries, if any, with sizeable Muslim minorities are free of religious conflict? The Philippines, Indonesia, Malaya, Thailand, India, the Middle East, Western Europe, all are in turmoil to a greater or lesser degree. As he says, in Britain there have so far been only ‘occasional acts of terrorism’. This is thanks to the efficiency of our security services, certainly not to any shortage of numbers sympathetic to the slaughter of us infidels. Most sensible people would agree a potential contagion is best nipped in the bud, rooted out and ‘smashed’. Mr Barnett writes glibly about a sense of proportion.