The Iraq War's Over... Next

The war in Iraq is over. Whatever your opinion about it, the war is over.

But recent events have proved that the threat from terrorism is just as great as it was before Saddam went thataway. Here in Britain, there's a growing debate about just how vulnerable we are. More than 30 years of murderous attacks by Irish terrorists have proven just how vulnerable a democracy can be.

So, more than a thousand of our ports and points of entry are being issued with equipment designed to identify nuclear material that could be used to make a dirty bomb.

Remember, we are an island just twenty miles away from the European mainland. Our internal defences are bound up with those of our neighbours. Frankly, our borders are as porus as a pair of fishnet tights ...and just about as secure.

So, that means dealing with those countries who bitterly and sincerely opposed the war in Iraq, particularly the French and the Germans. They are just as bound up in the war against terror as we are, as you are. And to continue the kind of mindless and abusive name calling that we've indulged in over the last few months, is to make the same mistake that was made back in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when Europe was made up of countless tiny, feuding states, each at the other's throat.

These days, the enemy isn't at the gates, he's within the walls and if you remember your history, Europe has always been at its weakest when it refuses to work together in its own, selfish interests.

So whatever our views about the conflict with Iraq, it's time to send a message to all squabbling finger pointing politicians on both sides of the Atlantic -- forget the war ... and get on with protecting your citizens.

By Simon Bates