Too true! Soon after 9/11 happened, I found my cynical side thinking, "hmmmm, nothing like a war against an Evil Empire to boost El Presidente's popularity rating & deflect attention from other matters; hell, it worked for Daddy!"

The fact that Dubyah's an illiterate moron incapable of anything more than mouthing catch-phrases like "evil doers" and "innocent folks" is apparently irrelevant as long as we can all band together and hate someone; anyone! Not that Osama & all his ilk are unworthy of hatred--personally they deserve whatever they get, IF they eventually get what's coming to them--it's just the swiftness with which patriotism devolves into knee-jerk jingoism that gives me the willies, and it makes me sick that there are people who are capitalising on it.