I'm not saying you don't give a damn about the Middle-Easterners, mg. Just the average American voter doesn't, that's all. As for shit and shinola...I don't even know what "shinola" is. I've lived long enough, though, to know how much attention the average North American gives to the lives of a lot of unnamed Middle Easterners, and it ain't too much.

If an airplane crashes somewhere, you know what I will hear on the news in Canada? I will hear how many Canadians were on it. If I was in the USA, I'd hear about how many Americans were on it. A good while after that I might hear about the other people who died...maybe a sentence or two about them.

That's the way it is out there. I'm not saying that only Americans are guilty of that kind of national self-absorption. It's very common.

What I am saying is that the main reason Bush got support in the USA for his invasion of Iraq was lingering anger over 911, and Saddam did not cause 911.