But what is so wrong or anti-American about calling for a measured response?Imagine that a neighbour arrives

But what is so wrong or anti-American about calling for a measured response?Imagine that a neighbour arrives on your doorstep in a distressed state, announcing that his wife and children have been murdered. He thinks he may know the identity of the culprit, although he isn't absolutely sure, and roughly where the perpetrator lives. He begs you to accompany him to the address, and assist him in burning down the house. Do you agree, or try to dissuade him while you summon the police? Most of us would be clear about where our moral duty lay in such circumstances. It is not dissimilar to the position of those of us who are worried by talk of a "crusade" and want to know what the President intends to do before offering unconditional support.If his intention is to organise an international coalition to identify, arrest and indict terrorists – as is already happening with war criminals at The Hague and Arusha tribunals – I am entirely in favour.

If it is to launch huge numbers of missiles at Afghanistan, then I am passionately opposed. So, I think, are many other people in this country and the US; it is almost unbearably moving to hear relatives of people who died in New York, Washington or Pennsylvania declare that they do not want more deaths. But any strategy to prevent terrorist attacks is inextricably linked with the question of causation.And that is where I part company with the splenetic moralists of the Mail and Telegraph. This does not make me a terrorist fellow-traveller; it means that I subscribe to a different set of moral standards and I have even, unlike most armchair generals, gone to the trouble of writing a book about it.

One of the things I have learnt is that the very existence of an alternative, liberal, secular morality comes as unwelcome news to conservatives. "Morality is morality," protested Professor Kenneth Minogue, formerly one of Baroness Thatcher's favourite advisers, when we had a frank exchange earlier this year.But it isn't as simple as that. In my view, it is immoral to encourage the overthrow of democratic governments, as the US did in Chile and Guatemala. It was immoral for the American embassy in Jakarta in 1966 to prepare a list of leading Communists which was used by the Indonesian security authorities to hunt them down; according to documents accidentally released in Washington only last month, 105,000 members of the Indonesian Communist Party died in the repression. It was immoral to stand back and allow genocide in Rwanda, as Bill Clinton did in 1994.What is the point of raking up these unhappy events? Let me be absolutely clear: the point is to help the US in its present ghastly predicament. It is an attempt to explain to decent, ordinary Americans how their country became public enemy number one in regions as geographically separate as Central America, South-East Asia and the Middle East. It is not, admittedly, as much fun to write as the abuse currently being hurled in less thoughtful journals But it does raise an important question.

As Americans struggle to understand the terrible events of 11 September, should they listen to the unthinking war-mongers in their fortresses of denial? Or voices which argue that acknowledging past mistakes is essential in order to create a fairer, safer future for us all?Will anyone spot the real evil of the Taliban? I'm sorry I can't help it But I did warn you. For the past five years, I have been banging on about the Taliban, the ignorant sect which has taken over Afghanistan and denied women education, medical treatment, even the right to walk about unmolested unless they wear a dreary garment called a burka Did anyone take any notice? Not really. Three years ago, I even collared a member of Tony Blair's cabinet and asked him what European governments intended to do to help Afghan women, with results I can only describe as bizarre.That was not the most serious problem with the Taliban, he countered. He was much more worried about the way they were exporting heroin in an attempt to destroy the Christian West. Excuse me? I stared at him, half expecting to hear he was about to launch the Fifth Crusade Now, of course, the problem has changed again.