Michael Gove in the Times makes a key point against the appeaseniks who gloat with every murderous attack in Iraq that it is turning into a quagmire just like Vietnam. This is as ignorant as it is despicable. To compare the two, says Gove, is not to compare like with like:

'In Vietnam the Communist forces were ideologically united, enjoyed broad popular support and were battling against a corrupt status quo with the promise of a radically different, and more hopeful, future. In Iraq, by contrast, the insurgents are united only in their hatred of the West and dislike of democracy... In Iraq, unlike Vietnam, it is the Americans who are offering an escape from the corrupt status quo that prevails in the region.'

That, of course, is precisely why the violence is being ratcheted up -- because the stakes for the corrupt merchants of death are so enormous. For them, it is imperative that Iraq does not become a free and stable society, because their hold not only over Iraqis but over the rest of the Arab world will be undermined.

Unlike the appeaseniks, who appear so disgustingly to exult every time Iraqis are murdered because this enables them to crow about 'quagmires', I think that every bomb that goes off shows how desperately important this struggle is and how vital it was that it was waged in the first place. And I also think how utterly heroic are the Iraqi people; how, unlike those in the west who would rather have had the 'stability' of Saddam's terrorist-sponsoring police state, the Iraqis are determined to achieve freedom from tyranny and are prepared to fight for it, no matter what cost they have to pay in their own blood.

They are not talking about 'quagmires'. They are talking about freedom. These people deserve our utmost admiration and respect. They put the decadent west, jeering from the safety of its armchair at those who are laying down their lives for freedom, to shame. And they surely touch something felt profoundly by all decent people everywhere -- a poignant recognition of the unquenchable optimism of the human spirit, which even truly monumental evil can never eradicate.