After the three attempted car bombings in London and Glasgow, Brown has placed Britain on the "highest alert". His message is that the public must be kept safe. This is, we are told, his government's first priority.

But when asked on Sunday, whether this car bomb attempt had anything to do with the war in Iraq, Brown's answer was no. He sang precisely the same tune as Bush or Blair on the subject - even if his tone might have been "less hysterical", as commentators pointed out.

So it is clear that Brown's concern for public safety is, in fact, strictly limited. And it certainly does not extend to Baghdad, nor Basra, nor even Kabul, where the public is being blown up almost every day by car bombs. He clearly does not give a damn about that. Officially, "only" 1,277 members of the Iraqi public were killed in June! This is progress, apparently, because in May, there were almost 2,000 civilians killed - just people trying to go about their normal lives, but prevented from doing so by US/British soldiers and the terrorism they have spawned. Only liars and hypocrites can argue that such attacks are not directly related to the US/British occupation, there and here!

While car bombs are becoming more common in Kabul, most Afghani civilians are still killed directly by Western aerial bombardment. And as a British officer, recently returned from Helmand said, "every civilian dead means five new Taliban".

In Iraq things are way beyond that stage. Now much of the violence is the result of the rivalries between different warlords - to the point of near-civil war. But it is the occupation which opened up these rivalries and which constantly fuels them. All the more reason for it to end.

So, no, it is simply not good enough that Brown "prioritises public safety" by putting Britain on high alert. The only action which will improve public safety - not only here, but more importantly, in the Middle East - is troop withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan. And not tomorrow, or next week. But right away.