Personally, as an American I did not care so much about the Middle East until all this terrorism in the name of Islam started appear with all the hijackings, suicide bombers, attacks at airports, the big attack at the Munich Olympics, the attacks on public transportation in Europe, the Embassy attacks in Kenya and Tanzania, the train attacks in London, Madrid, Paris, Berlin, and many others, the airport attacks in Rome and in Vienna, and then the big one on 911 the World Trade Center. For a long time now, you can read about terrorists attacks in the name of Islam on a daily basis in international news.