Nerd, I knew none of the hijackers was from Iraq, and I also never was of the opinion that the war in Iraq was retaliation for 9/11. I thought it was retaliation for the last 12 years that Saddam Hussein flouted all the UN resolutions he said he would keep, and because somehow he himself had most of the world leaders believing he was hiding something. Maybe he was just pulling a good bluff to look like a big man in front of his supporters.

Anyhow I think the news media are partly to blame for people's confusion. Since we are able to transmit news almost instantaneously, a lot of things get reported before all the facts are there; then we all see different stories in different sources, and sit around going, "I read this," "Oh really? Well, I read THAT," "no, wait a minute, I read something else entirely."

In my mind, a story isn't proper news until all the facts have been gathered and checked out. I think they used to do that in the old days before instant communications.

Ebbie, understanding grievances is the optimum way of handling disputes between people who want to listen to reason. I'm afraid terrorists don't fall into that category. I don't know the answer either.