The United States should show France the proper respect it deserves for having confronted radical Islam at home and having banned the muslim headscarf and other religious symbols in public schools.

This is where the cultural war between the secular West and Islam must be fought first, on home soil. Getting tough on immigration and instituting schemes of repatriation for aliens. This, rather than the invasion of and radicalisation of a country -- Iraq -- that had nothing to do with September 11th. Now that country has been radicalised and the United States has planted the seed of Al Qaeda firmly in Iraq, probably for good. Way to go US -- how stupid can you get?

In Europe we have large Muslim populations, quite beyond the comprehension of many Americans; in recent polls some 10% are said to have been sympathetic to the July 7 2005 Al Qaeda bombings in my country. We in Europe face the consequences of America's war.

The world does not resolve around the United States; it just suffers the consequences.