1. Wherever the Moslem world touches the non-Moslem, there is trouble — almost always Moslem terrorism and attempts to take over non-Moslem territory. Kosovo, Macedonia and Chechenia in Europe, Nigeria and southern Sudan in Africa, Lebanon, Israel, Kashmir, the Moluccas and the Philippine Republic in Asia — these are only the outstanding examples. The jihad against the unbelievers is in full swing, but the West still seems unable to feel the full gravity of the situation. Its disunited stance is exactly what is needed to encourage Islamic terrorists the world over.

2. President Bush would naturally like to gain international support for his planned military action against Iraq. The "Quartet", polite shorthand for the United States, the European Community, Russia and the Secretary-General of the UN, was created for this purpose. So far, it has not delivered the goods. The European Community is the weakest link. It is not a community that can be addressed as such. Britain and Italy might want to go along with Washington, but France and Germany have other ideas. President Chirac, during his recent tour of Arab states even hinted (without, of course, committing himself) that France might use its veto. Russia's inclination to align itself against Moslem terrorism will probably be offset by its interest in getting a share of the Iraqi market for arms. And the United Nations, with its large number of Moslem states, will view the above situation as an additional reason for offering no help to the United States unless Washington pushes it very hard indeed.

3. Moslem terrorism has made the security situation in the Philippine Republic so bad that the Government has been forced to mobilize municipal and other local officials for security guard duties. An additional 1,700 policemen have been stationed in Manila. The Americans have offered and given help, but their forces are not popular with the Filipinos who appear to prefer dealing with their own problems. Some of the bases from which the terrorists operate are on the Indonesian island of Celebes. Until the massacre in Bali, the Indonesian authorities rarely intervened. Now they have a motive to cooperate, but have not yet acted on it.