Ah, now my subject line is making me all hungry...

I keep seeing lines like the “U.S.-Led War on Terror,” the “U.S.-Led Attack on Afghanistan,” and the “U.S.-Led Preemptive Strike on Iraq.” Now we get the “U.S.-Led Arrogance and Selfishness of the Western World.”

What a crock!

Chretien is the first head of a western major nation to suggest that the suicide hijackers might have been motivated by what he describes as the misguided policies of a rich and powerful West that did not understand the need for restraint.

The attack, like all other al-Qai’da hits against the U.S. -- and comparatively very few other Western targets, I should add -- was motivated by the desire of certifiable lunatics to kill as many innocent people as possible, as publicly as possible. That’s it. They have no argument. They have no reason. They have no defense. They just kill. They are backward and murderous, and simply need to be extinguished. In no way did the acts of the al-Qai’da come anywhere near a political consensus of the Arab nations, nor did the attacks have the support of the majority -- or even an eighth -- of the Middle East’s population (if it were a normal region, I would have said “the Middle East's voting-population” -- but you know how it is).

Now, for examples in “arrogance and selfishness,” I suggest PM Jean Chretien visit Saudi Arabia again -- and this time shake off the security forces around him and walk the streets downtown, actually paying attention to the inhabitants of that benighted country as I have.

Paris ain’t got nuthin’ on Riyadh.

Anyway, the U.S.-led reform of the Middle East is now underway, so the PM should have fewer issues with his own monetary success in the future.

Dan (I still feel arrogantly great to be a member of a nation that’s always in the lead)