White feathers

Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey calls it a day because he's attracting too much heat, while compatriot Nah·det Masr longs for an Egyptian Ataturk. Hundreds of thousands of Turks demonstrated in support of secularism. In the quaint way of free societies, we won't get numbers like that here until we're past crisis point.

Iraq the Model has one question: Why are the Democrats doing this?

I am Iraqi and to me the possible consequences of this vote are terrifying. Just as we began to see signs of progress in my country the Democrats come and say ‘well, it’s not worth it, so it’s time to leave’.

White feather campaigns have begun in the USA, aimed at the Democrats ITM questions.

The father of a schoolfriend, a conscientious objector, was sent white feathers during the Second World Way. He talked about it with us one evening. There's a whiff of the lynch mob about white feathers, which make me uneasy with the US campaigns. I certainly don't think my friend's Dad was a coward. Volunteering would have been a nobler course of action, but making a stand on an unpopular issue of conscience is vanishingly rare and profoundly difficult.

I don't think that's what the Democrats were doing, though. They aren't pacifists. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the Iraq invasion might have been, now we are here it is obvious that leaving prematurely would result in even more bloodshed. It was an act of political expediency and isolationism, and was deeply contemptible.

Meanwhile, in Egypt, Turkey and Iraq, people are bravely fighting for secularism and freedom. Whether or not white feather campaigns in America are helpful, there's a case for medals for bravery in the Islamic world.