The timing of Mr Miliband's comments, which amounted to a public condemnation of the outgoing Bush administration's approach to tackling the modern menace of Islamist-inspired terrorism, was aimed at currying favour with the new US foreign policy team, led by Hillary Clinton, that is preparing to take office following President-Elect Barack Obama's inauguration next week.

Mrs Clinton made an alarming intervention of her own this week, when she pledged to pursue a policy of "smart power", in stark contrast to the "hard power" approach of the Bush White House. Mrs Clinton showed a disturbing lack of understanding about the threat America faces, when she ruled out having any dialogue with the militant Palestinian group Hamas, so long as it continued to deny Israel's right to exist, while at the same time suggesting she wanted to open talks with Iran over its controversial nuclear programme. Iran is one of Hamas's staunchest allies, providing it with many of the missiles that are now being fired at Israel, which means that Iran and Hamas share similar objectives.

Likewise, while Mr Miliband's comments will no doubt help to win him brownie points in Washington, they suggest a worrying misconception about the nature of the conflict Britain and its allies are engaged in fighting.

Talk to any of the young Pashtun tribesmen volunteering to risk their lives fighting for the Taliban against the British and other coalition forces in southern Afghanistan, and they will tell you they are joining the jihad, the holy war, against the West and all it stands for. The same goes for the young Shia recruits joining the many Iranian-backed militias that have been engaged in fierce combat with coalition forces in Iraq.

Again, counter to Mr Miliband's view, the Islamists bring together terror tactics and ideology. In Afghanistan and Iraq, the fanatics leading the respective insurgencies are fighting to overthrow pro-western, democratically elected governments. Their intention is to replace them with administrations that would impose hard-line Islamic regimes, such as the barbaric dictatorship the Taliban established in Kabul, under which adulterers were stoned to death and women beaten if they dared to show their faces in public.

The Israelis face a similar challenge in Gaza, where Hamas wants to establish an Islamic government. Hamas may have come to power through the ballot box, but since taking office it has done everything in its power to destroy the democratic principles underpinning the fledgling Palestinian state, from murdering its secular-minded Fatah opponents to forcing Palestinian women to wear the veil.

The Gaza crisis also belies Mr Miliband's claim that these Islamist groups act independently of each other. Long before Israel launched its invasion, Iran's Revolutionary Guards were smuggling missiles and combat equipment through a well-established smuggling route that begins in Sudan and makes its way to the Egyptian-controlled Rafah crossing point, by way of Port Said.

Osama bin Laden has made a rare broadcast from his Hindu Kush lair, urging Muslims to join the worldwide jihad against Israel, the West and any Muslim government that is deemed to be pro-western. Hamas, al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Iran: they all share the same goal – to inflict maximum carnage against the West and its interests. And if that's not war, then I don't know what is. The Telegraph.