[sixmil]

Facts are stubborn things, aren't they?

Not if you dig a little deeper than the surface.

Your list is a little dated, and also it is nothing more than GNP, which is basically a guage of how big a country's economy is. I think you should give some weight to per capita GNP, which factors out population size. Another one is PPP (purchasing power parity) which takes cost of living into account.

These are from the CIA World factbook 2001 (1999 data):

GDP
1. US
2. China (chicom notorious for overstating gdp)
3. Japan
4. Germany
5. India
6. France
7. UK
8. Italy
9. Brazil
10. Mexico

Per Capita GNP
1. Luxembourg
2. US
3. Singapore
4. Switzerland
5. Monaco
6. Norway
7. Belgium
8. Denmark
9. Iceland
10. Japan/Austria

PPP you'll have to get from World Bank or somewhere, but I can tell you that the US does well, while northern European countries and Japan tend to slide down the scale for the simple fact that collectivism ain't cheap.

But getting back to the original point, do you have any reason to doubt the reasons the terrorists themselves give for attacking America? I don't know that I would take out all of Mecca, but I certainly would not be happy with Saudi (or even UN) troops on our soil to protect us from a Canadian invasion, for example.

[Lazamataz]

You've posted facts basically supporting my position, and I thank you for it.

But getting back to the original point, do you have any reason to doubt the reasons the terrorists themselves give for attacking America?

Simple: Palestinians claimed they would be peaceful if only Israel would make all these major concessions.

Israel made most of those major concessions.

Palestine began one of its most bloody terrorist attack periods.

Terrorists lie.