Dear Sir,

If you think your neighbours are standing by dry-eyed and stony-hearted, you have not been listening. There is one battle-line in this battle, and you are not alone. But tell us some practical way to help.

I am sorry, but that is an unfair and is a distortion of the facts.

The military are not the only ones facing this evil, every civilian who stands up to fanatics and pays a price is equally a soldier in the war. Civilians pay a price in varying degrees of severity, some by restriction in their freedom of speech, some by restrictions in their movements, the way they dress, the way they wear their facial hair, the length of their pajamas, their choice of music, even the fact that they listen to music, art, literature, statuary – what is left out?

Do you find it difficult to understand that a life lived under these restrictions is not a life worth leading in the first place?

While I support the efforts of a committed and nationally minded military corps to clean up the mess in their country, it is difficult not to point out that they were partly responsible for it in the first place. To create a mess and then claim credit for cleaning it up is a bit too much, don’t you think?

My apologies for being long-winded; not being a Spartan, I tend to use words more often than action.