So how come so many people around the Arab world don't believe us when we say we mean them no harm? Maybe it's the mixed messages. Like when the President talks about what a peace-loving people we are while everyone watches cruise missiles annihilate buildings in Baghdad on CNN and al-Jazeera.

Or when the President has said over and over again that the purpose of Operation Iraqi Freedom™ is to liberate Iraq and help them establish whatever system of government they want, and then Colin Powell tells Congress, "We didn't take on this huge burden with our coalition partners not to be able to have a significant dominating control over how it unfolds in the future." Whoops. That comment might fuel some completely unwarranted suspicions.

Since the beginning of the War On Terrorism™, the Administration has emphasized time and again that America has no quarrel with Islam. It cannot help their case that the Rev. Franklin Graham’s Southern Baptist Convention is massing food and humanitarian supplies in Jordan for distribution in Iraq. Graham, the son of Billy Graham, famously called Islam "a very evil and wicked religion." Some crazy Middle Eastern conspiracy theorists might point to the fact that Graham led the prayer at Bush's inauguration, and that Bush continually speaks of asking God for guidance, to conclude that Bush and Graham share similar worldviews.

And while we insist that America does not seek to exploit Iraq for economic gain, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is trying to pass a law that will force the US Agency for International Development to rebuild the Iraqi mobile telephone network on the CDMA standard. The existing Iraqi mobile phone network -- or the one that existed until we blew it up -- employed the incompatible GSM standard, as indeed does that of every other country in the Middle East and almost every other country on earth. But California-based Qualcomm does not make GSM equipment, making the standard unacceptable to Rep. Issa. Qualcomm invented the CDMA standard though, making that a very palatable choice. Some nuts in the Arab world might conclude that Rep. Issa and his colleagues may have had inappropriate motivations when they gave Bush the green light to invade.

But don't worry. The truth will win out, and the triumphant parades will start any minute now.