Rick Steves, popular local travel guide writer is yet another source of embarassment for NW citizens. Steves has lately gone on record as saying "The greatest risk to our society today is not Islamo-fascist terrorism, but the people who use that term to scare us."

Got that? It's our fault that they hate us, and far worse than what we witnessed on 9/11/2001 is our willingness to use that day as a proper platform to seriously acknowledge the threat that we face.

The threat is obvious. Whether it be Osama Bin Laden, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Hassan Nasrallah there is continual preaching of active hatred and calls for jihad against Western peoples. And the threat has existed for more than 30 years and spanned every US Administration. The hatred exists and the effigies are burned be they of Clinton or Bush.

Rick Steves would have us ignore the obvious autonomous nature of Islam's hatred of the West. It is not Americans that are organizing mullahs in the Middle Eastern Theocracies to preach hatred and jihad. Nor is it Americans that cause these nations to solicit and distribute funding for terror.

Islam has an internal struggle with Western existence that predates even the existence of the United States. In the Koran, Mohammed calls upon his followers to give three choices to the non-Muslim infidels that they encounter: Convert to Islam, Submit Payment or be Killed. Apparently organized travel tours of the Middle East to generate tourism dollars were not envisioned by Mohammed as a form of infidel contrition. But hey! Here is a great opportunity for Rick Steves that I now present.

Rick, why not "Nations that Sponsor Terrorism: Through the Backdoor" a great new series of guidebooks. I envision books for Iran, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Lebanon, Afghanistan, etc. There's a lot of room for growth. Imagine "Tehran Through the Backdoor." Rick, you could devise quaint walking tours of Jihadi suicide bomb making factories, dissident prison camps, adulterous woman stonings and homosexual hangings. There's so much potential. An accompanying art guide might be "Mohammed Winks" where you show all of the artwork that your customers can't see because it was destroyed by the Taliban. Finally, you could build a vast network of Middle East hotels and inns eager for your Left Leaning Seattle tourists' dollars. And those large gaggles of Ugly Americans would be great terrorist targets if the Middle Eastern countries were short on Americans to behead of journalists to convert to Islam at gunpoint. Frankly Rick, I can't believe you've missed this market opportunity.

In all seriousness, yes there is a threat. And yes, there is no doubt that some in the Middle East hate the US. But like many of Rick Steve's travelers learn, the misplaced notions we might have towards Europeans are largely stereotypical and mythical constructs that are in no way reflective of the nice people we meet when we go to France and Italy. Muslims would probably find the US to be a very nice place if they stopped listening to the daily hatred sermons and tried to appreciate our culture instead of just dreaming of killing us all.

Why is it that those on the left like Rick Steves always view the world as one way with respect to cultures? They only culture that is unnacceptable is our own.