I have felt that the Arab in the street is so unable to reason the situation out himself is because Al Jajeera casts such a slanted view (to say the least). As long as this continues, the shopkeeper will be our enemy. I don't give them much credit, do I?
On another note, I went to your "about" page and have been reading for the last 30 minutes. It was compelling and now bookmarked for more reading. One paragraph I particularly liked and gave new insight to the prison "scandal" was as follows~~"Bush's contrition only rubs salt into the wounds to Arab pride. Not only are these jihadis reduced to naked, groveling miserables -- in front of the world, and without a mark on them -- but we act like it didn't even require effort."
Things are rarely as they seem, and all the more so in the world of commercial news. There's always a reason for everything. Sometimes it's obvious, sometimes it's not, and sometimes it's deliberately concealed. If a story doesn't seem to make sense, it's probably because the rationales behind it are unknown.
That's my personal playground, trying to find those hidden rationales. Sometimes I'm a million miles off-base, but usually I get some of it right, and every once in a while, I manage to nail it. But regardless of how accurate it may be, I always find a great deal of satisfaction by coming up with explanations for events that make sense to me.
In approaching the plot, like a mystery writer, I try to start at the end of the story and work backwards, applying the motivations of the characters in ways that make sense to each of them. And like classic mystery novels, a seemingly irrational news story challenges us to use our finely-honed wits to solve the puzzle.
What could be more fun than that?
(Hmm, I think I'll add this blurb to my blog. Imal: private detective, mystery writer, adventurer... 8^)