Oh, jeez, you THINK so?

Well, if most Americans can't locate Afghanistan (or pretty much any other given country) on a map, we DO know the gobbluns'll git us if we don't watch out:

(CNN) -- As the five-year anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks approaches, nearly three-fourths of those responding to a CNN poll said they believe Osama bin Laden is planning another significant attack against the United States.

Seventy-four percent of the 1,033 adult Americans polled said they believe an attack is being planned, according to the poll conducted by Opinion Research Corporation on behalf of CNN.

So nice Bush let him escape at Tora Bora, isn't it? And isn't it such a coinkydink that the "news" channel which has been breathlessly advertising FEAR! TERROR! FEAR! the last few weeks has an audience that's scared whizless?

An example:

Michael Scheuer, who once headed the CIA's bin Laden unit, says bin Laden has been given permission by a young cleric in Saudi Arabia authorizing al Qaeda to "use nuclear weapons against the United States ... capping the casualties at 10 million."

Now I don't want to sound like I'm diminishing the threat from bin Laden. Nope, that's the Bush regime's job:

So I don't know where [bin Laden] is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him, Kelly, to be honest with you.
Bush news conference, March 13, 2002

Q Second question: The President's speech today at the Pentagon as far as terrorism and fighting terrorism is concerned, do you think that Osama bin Laden is still in -- is running the al Qaeda business?

MR. McCLELLAN: I'm sorry, who?
Scott McClellan press briefing, January 4, 2006

But don't worry - they hated us plenty already:

And so my question -- my answer to your question is, is that, imagine a world in which Saddam Hussein was there, stirring up even more trouble in a part of the world that had so much resentment and so much hatred that people came and killed 3,000 of our citizens.

So evidently the clever plan here is to soothe the hatred that killed almost 3000 Americans by, um, creating more hatred for the United States. Whee!

(And of course, that last exchange leads to this immortal comment:

Q What did Iraq have to do with that?

THE PRESIDENT: What did Iraq have to do with what?

Q The attack on the World Trade Center?

THE PRESIDENT: Nothing [. . .]

But nevertheless, you can see from Bush's previous comments how the process of taking specific threats and turning them into a mush where bin Laden = Saddam = Hezbollah = al Qaeda = WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE! works, aided in large part by that aforementioned American ignorance of the world.)