I have to admit to not being able to watch most of the Democrat's convention but catching up with the late-night round ups and reading some of the speeches the following morning.

If you went to sleep on January 1, 2001 and woke up Monday and had to depend on the various speakers to inform you of the issues of the day:

Would you know that almost 3,000 Americans died in multiple, co-ordinated terrorist attacks? Would you even know that about 1,000 American soldiers had died in multiple military campaigns? Would you know of the hundreds that dies in Madrid, Bali, etc. in terrorist attacks by Muslim fundamentalists?

Would you know that Afghanistan and Iraq were no longer dictatorships, but fledgling democracies? That Libya gave up it's nuclear program? That there is a good possibility that Iran's own facilities might come under attack?

Would you know that soldiers from 15 other countries have died helping us liberate Iraq? And don't tell me that one death for certain countries doesn't count when the Philippines pulled out their whole contingent based on the fear of one civilian death.

Would you know that the intifada against Israel had virtually come to a halt and that there were almost no successful suicide bombings in 2004?

These are not policy issues that can be ignored or economic numbers that can be manipulated, but are fundamental changes to what we call the "world order".

No, instead you would think that the rich need to pay a few percentage points more in taxes and our new President should fly to France to apologize for our being so, well, American - then everything will be all right with world and we can all go back to our La-Z-Boys to watch our high definition, breast-baring Super Bowl halftime shows.

UPDATE: I take back most of what I said above after reading John Edwards' speech. Very nicely done. Perhaps it's not too late to have an Edwards-Kerry ticket?