FOUR weeks ago I wrote in this column that the war in Afghanistan is a senseless waste of our soldiers’ lives. I added: “In any case, the leaders of al Qaida are not only in the border country shared by Afghanistan and Pakistan: they are in Somalia, Sudan and the Yemen.”

As a horrible demonstration of the truth of that last bit, we have the would-be suicide plane bomber over Detroit – trained in Yemen. In a subsequent interview he boasted: “Plenty more where I came from.”

I repeat; we are not fighting the murderous Islamic fundamentalists where they are at their strongest – and that is in Britain. We have not followed up the promises we made after the July 2005 London tube bombings.

For instance, the authorities still tolerate the informal operation of sharia law in Muslim areas. We support the Muslim Council of Great Britain which gives aid and comfort to Islamic extremism. The Government has refused to outlaw the Hizb ut-Tahrir organisation which preaches jihad. We have not prosecuted the fanatics in mosques and madrassas who advocate terrorism.

Our junk universities have allowed freedom of speech to the promoters of terrorism and provided sanctuary for Islamist students who shout the hate-filled slogans of al Qaida.

All these disastrous policies are pursued by a politically-correct establishment afraid of alienating moderate Muslims. It overlooks the fact that moderate Muslims hate the Islamic terrorists for the very good reason that more Muslims than Westerners are targeted by the extremists who bomb mosques and Muslim processions as well as churches.

When acts of terrorism become more numerous in this country – as they will – it is the moderate Muslims who will suffer the backlash from an outraged population.

So, if the Government is serious about promoting good race relations, it should be seen to crack down on the extremists and at a stroke remove the main cause of the increasing public fury.

Osama bin Laden boasts that the Islamic terrorists will win the day because Europe doesn’t have the stomach for a fight. In fact, the only fight our Government is engaged in is against our own law-abiding people who are more oppressed by surveillance laws allegedly framed as anti-terrorism measures.

Effectually, our intelligence services are fighting this war with one hand tied behind their back. What is the use of their identifying extremist agitators and terrorists in the making if legislators do not allow them to take vigorous action against these enemies?

All this official talk of young Muslims being “radicalised” – as if taking up terrorism were something passive – is particularly irritating.

As if these incipient mass-murderers were victims. They are not victims, but perpetrators of evil acts committed according to the dictates of their own perverted ideology.

They should be weeded out by all rational means; imprisonment or deportation. The socalled educational institutions operating as schools for terrorism should be closed down.

“Plenty more where I came from,” bragged would-be bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

How many of us will have to die before the authorities take the action which alone will protect us? In the last world conflict there was the famous chastisement of complacency: “Don’t you know there’s a war on?”

Today’s Government doesn’t know it.