Yes, Bruce, but the part he was alluding to was the first paragraph, which says:

"Well, yes, Ake, but he (Doug R) honestly believes that the War on Anti-terrorism is a legitimate defence of the USA against evil foreign religious fanatics, and he probably honestly believes also that the USA went into Iraq to "help the people" and to "create democracy". (Ha! Ha! Gasp! Snort! Cough!)

Only I think Doug meant without the laughter at the end... :-)

You see, that is the sort of thing that good citizens and loyal soldiers of aggressor powers usually believe...in all good conscience, given their understanding of the situation. It's the kind of thing Germans believed in 1940, the kind of thing Britons believed when they were exterminating African tribes, the kind of thing the Japanese believed in 1941, the kind of thing loyal Iraqis believed when they attacked Iran, etc, etc, ad infinitum. Nice people can be misled by propaganda and fear tactics again, and again, and again. And their natural instinct is to support their government in what it does overseas or across the border, generally speaking.

It's basic tribal mentality.

As I said before, my tribe includes all people on this planet, not just my own nationality. Therefore, I tend to be a bit unconventional when it comes to things like lining up automatically behind the "home team". (Anyway, I consider it fairly likely that high-up elements in the American government either let 911 happen...or helped it to happen...because it allowed them to scare their public into sanctioning foreign oil wars in strategic areas. I think Bin Laden is an employee and a good buddy of the very people who are pretending to hunt him.)

Well, this thread has been great fun lately.

Don Firth - Your post of 11th Jan at 4:01 was spot on. Very well put!