The problem is that some people, after years of "war is evil" crap and more recently, "no blood for oil" etc, now seriously believe that the Army is basically the tool of imperialist forces within the Government, and that it shouldn't be in Iraq in the first place. Given this thinking, arguing for a level playing field is kind of irrelevant.

I suppose this refusal to see an enemy even when he attacks you and makes plain his intentions has been a part of British society since before WWII: certainly it was something Churchill was forced to expend resources overcoming before he could even begin to prepare for the war with Hitler. The question is, how much larger is it today? I would argue it is considerably larger because of the brain-dead "my enemy's enemy is my friend" thinking of the Left, which is allied with the more normal anti-war crowd, who really are against all wars and not just those against the enemies of freedom.

I think another reason for the Left's infatuation with the authoritarian and intolerant version of Islam which is becoming such a threat to freedom, is because they could only wish for such an effect on their own countrymen. It must be incredibly frustrating to be so enlightened about how to fix society's ills when no-one will listen to you. When a bunch of loonies spouting authoritarian claptrap manage to sway millions to their bidding, the Left can only stand in envious awe.

One of John Reid's points made me think: it's been so long since Britain had conscription that the average person has no real idea of what it's like to serve. While I have my doubts about conscription, I sometimes wonder if a system like the one Heinlein described in Starship Troopers might not be such a bad idea...