Osama Bin Laden could not have got it more wrong if he tried.

11 September was supposed to show how weak the US was, turn US public opinion against their own government, cause a united Islamic world to rise up against the West and propel Osama towards the position of global Caliph.

In fact the opposite has happened. The US is riding higher than at any time in its history. The bankrupt cowards of the Islamic world are sheltering behind US skirts, Islam has been trashed as a sensible religion, Al Quadia is smashed, the Taliban are ruined, Afghanistan is free, Yemen is shelling its own terrorists, Pakistan is killing Al Quadia fugitives and Osama is looking like the biggest fool since Idi Amin. We may even see Saddam blasted from power.

The door has been firmly slammed in the face of the forces of evil and we can feel proud of the British contribution to this rout.

11 September left me worried about the future. The events since then have reaffirmed my faith in the future of humanity.

Moses, Jesus, Mohammed and all the others failed to sort out the problems of humanity. The US/British/Jewish coalition might just do it.

Arthur, you say Afghanistan is free. Well, yes, to a certain degree many of the draconian measures implemented by the Taleban have been removed. But Afghanistan is far from free. We have replaced one set of dictatorial rules with a larger set - this time of provincial warlords, who will be looking to secure their power bases over the coming months.

The West of course puts great emphasis on the transitional government due to come into power this weekend. This is nothing but a publicity stunt. Bush and Blair had to show that something positive, like "democracy" had come out of the conflict, in order to justify their intervention against the Taleban.

The transitional government will come to nothing. What we will see is the return to localised commanders and militias ruling their own parts of the country. Afghanistan is a tribal country, built on centuries of mutual distrust amongst its population. Kabul will never the seat of power. Even the Taleban allowed local commanders and community chiefs to run things their own way in the provinces, as long as it didn't threaten their standing in the capital. There were girls going to school in Taleban "controlled" areas.

I think claiming that the Allies have brought freedom to Afghanistan is a yuletide sentiment too far ...

Muslims do not believe in freedom and democracy, so Afghanistan will never be "free" as we understand it.

However they are a great deal more "free" than they were, so let the little buggers rejoice.

I'm sure that life inside Taleban controlled Afghanistan wasn't always as bad as we sometimes imagined (well...for some Afghans, at least). It was pretty bad but, then again, some Afghans actually supported Taleban rule.

But the Taleban regime on it's own was never the justification for the military action.

The fact is that the Taleban, under the leadership of a one-eyed half-wit, offered unconditional support and shelter for the world's largest and most fanatical terrorist organisation - in return for the millions of pounds, the rocket-propelled grenades and the Toyota 4WDs that kept them from being overthrown by their own people.

Al-Qaeda were even allowed to use the Afghan national airline (Ariana) as it's own Middle East-Central Asia terrorist shuttle service - presumably also for flying in Pakistani and ex-Soviet Union nuclear scientists to haggle over the price of 'hooky' depleted Uranium.

Today, al-Qaeda barely exists in Afghanistan. Those not dead or being 'questioned' by the CIA are fleeing for their lives. It will not be so easy for them to re-group.

To you or me in the West, it hardly matters a flying f**k what life is now like for ordinary Afgans. Rest assured it will almost certainly be better and if it isn't, after all the help we have offered, that's their own fault.

The important thing is that al-Qaeda has effectively been massacred. Bin Laden expected to be toasting the disintegration of Western civilization this Christmas - along with his acension to leadership of the Arab/Islamic world. Unfortunately for him, that dream (however unlikely to begin with) is now DEAD. If he is actually still alive, the rest of his life will be spent on the run. The world is a safer place.

Furthermore, those greedy and cowardly leaders of countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia have been shown that the only way to run an Islamic country is the way that President Pervez Musharaff in Pakistan has. I think he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize. If you want something to toast at your Christmas dinner, try that.