Well, it was last December. I had just returned from the US a few months earlier and I was finally starting to grasp what the whole "War on Terror" thing was all about. You don't get to see it when you are in the states really, because of the polarizing effects of American politics and Media have on the discussion. It was right after I escaped the Taba bombing and witnessed the reaction of the Egyptian media (They blamed Israel for the actions of the Palestinian bomber that killed Israeli tourists and Egyptian nationals (that could've included me and my friends) on our own soil) that I fully realized that there is something sinister really going on in the media of middle-eastern countries in their attitude regarding Israel and the US. It's also when I fully realized that the whole "You are either with us or with the terrorists" thing is actually true and that Bush is right: You can't be passive against people who want you dead and you can't have tolerance for people who excuse their actions either, because those are the people who tolerate intolerance and defend those who want to kill you. It's either us or them, and I chose us.

Bearing that in mind, I realized that the terrorist apologists have total control over the media here, which in turn influences the public opinion of the average Egyptian and/or Arab. This isn't a coincidence or out of shared ideological beliefs amongst our media elites, but rather part of the Arab rulers/ dictators plan to misdirect their masses. They use their media to foster and feed anti-american sentiment in their countries in order to give their people an enemy to focus their hate and frustration on. They tell you that as long as the poor brave palestinains are getting slaughtered by the evil Zionist jews under the sanction of their evil American puppets, you can't complain about your life or your problems or the fact that you live in a tyrannical society where you have no freedom...