It should be obvious that any continued campaign, on the part of whatever group, is morally wrong, democratically unjustifiable, politically deeply counter-productive and militarily absurd. The political and democratic path, however thorny – we see in current circumstances how thorny it is – is the only way forward. It is a complete illusion – unfortunately, it is a rather hard-bitten illusion – to believe that even a successful or financially damaging attack will have any more effect than in the past in persuading a country that has just fought, to use its own language, "a war on terrorism", to succumb to anything that a minuscule splinter organisation might have to throw at it.