It is right for the British and Americans to assume the white man's burden in trying to help those races more unfortunate than our own.

Unfortunately, this altruism is open to misinterpretation. Here we are, going half way around the world at great personal expense, trying to liberate the Iraqi people and the ingrates, instead of welcoming us, are actually fighting against us.

That wasn't supposed to happen. And the longer the war continues, the more civilian casualties mount, the more cities we pulverise, the more we upset the Iraqi people.

I can understand their point. Our proclamation that we come as liberators has not been convincing.

On the contrary, the Iraqis, unbelievably, seem to think we are invading their homeland.

Perhaps they fear that when Saddam Hussein has been removed we will install a puppet government favourable to ourselves so as to siphon off their oil.

How they misunderstand us.

The US and UK stand alone against an international community shocked, disgusted and distrustful.

The Islamic nations are united against us and regard us as murderous imperialists. The entire Middle East is seriously destabilised.

Terrorists are quietly waiting for payback time. Iraq, once "liberated", will prove to be barely governable and, once occupied, guerrilla warfare will go on for the foreseeable future.

The division of spoils will lead, eventually, to a falling-out between the victors.

It will slowly dawn on Mr Blair that Mr Bush's true motives were somewhat less idealistic than he thought.

It is obvious they did not think this through. They overestimated their own military prowess and completely misunderstood the Iraqi people.

They failed to foresee how loathsome we would appear to the rest of the world and even to ourselves.

Against the backdrop of mangled bodies and weeping women, the unchanging presidential rhetoric now seems irrelevant and barbaric.

As for those alleged "weapons of mass destruction" we used to make such a fuss about, the less said about them, the better.

The US has, indeed, laid its cards on the table - and what cards they are. The war has opened up a new world order, far more dangerous than it was before, in which brute military firepower is pitted against implacable hatred and cunning.

Nice work, guys.

-Stephen Silver, Hove Street, Hove