My former local supervisor, in all other respects a fine and peace-loving man whom I'd welcome to my home overseas (except I wouldn't have enough room for him, his wife, his kids and the maid) and with whom breaktime chats were usually interesting, was a 9/11 unbeliever. Or rather, he thought the US government was behind it.
When the subject came up, I certainly didn't just smile and agree with him! I pointed out that the US government couldn't have got away with it due to the fact that in a democracy (even in the current atmosphere of "security" before freedom) it would have been impossible to get so many people to keep quiet from so many different agencies, and no one in the US would likely volunteer to die just to set up a pretext for future government actions.
I doubt I changed his mind, and he certainly didn't change mine! Still, I think some expats do treat the locals more gently than is really required. I reckon many of them love a good arguement...
