Eraser, perhaps you might care to note the...er, first words in my posting?
Oh, and what "backlash" exactly? You mean they might start throwing bricks or delivering suicide bombs? Oh yeah, I forgot, they were doing that already, doh!
I wonder why it is, that we're incapable of simply dealing with these people in the manner to which they are accustomed and, ultimately, the only kind of response that they ever understand?
As Dragon has just suggested previously, the time has indeed come (it came ages ago) where we should leave these people to sort themselves out, indeed we ought to have never got involved in the first place. The notion that sending even more British servicemen out to Afghanistan is going to prevent so much as one terrorist attack is, of course, entirely specious.
We don't have the resources to embark on international crusades, and if George W wants to save the world for his Religious Right, then let him get on with it, without dragging us along with him. The Ministry of Defence ought to ponder on the definition of the term "defence" and ask where, exactly, sending servicemen to these God-forsaken countries has ever saved so much as one British life. Unless I'm very much mistaken, it's actually killed far too many?