The United States, for good or ill, has been a large influence in what goes on in the Middle East.

I think this "influence" has a lot more to do with terrorist targeting than does American culture, freedom or values.

Interestingly, my daughter is studying 20th century middle east history in her grade 12 history class - I'm learning things, too - such as, when the Brits were the dominant force in the area, they were the targets of bombings and shootings. And that the Arabs fought with the Turks, etc. early in the century.

I kinda thought Egypt and Turkey were democracies - but maybe not "bastions". Are you sure Israel fits the bill?

Control of most of the Mideast oil supply by the Baathists was a real possibility before Gulf War 1.

So are you saying it IS about the oil??

Canada is not a major influence in the world in either the economic, military, or the cultural sense. In other words, it isn't really any more of a threat than Iceland is to the Islamists.

Ahem. Canada isn't as big as the US or Britain, but it is a fair bit more significant than Iceland in those areas. It is a member of the G8, it is by quite a bit the US's biggest trading partner in both directions, it is consistently ranked near the top in the world for standard of living and as a desireable place to live. Canada's military isn't huge, but has been respected in the past for it's peacekeeping efforts. And culture? What about Celine Dion? Shania Twain? Jim Carrey? Michael Ondaatje? Pam Anderson? Mike Meyers? Keanu Reeves? Kim Cattrall? Carrie-Anne Moss? Douglas Copeland? Monty Hall and Alex Trebek? Neil Young?

I rest my case.