I see some people here are dismissing the "foreign soil" element of what the Dixie Chicks did.

It was relevant because they didn't make these statements when performing in front of American audiences. They kept their mouths shut during their US concerts because they felt they were performing for a bunch of conservative hicks, and the anti-war message wouldn't be well received. When performing in the UK, where the audience was more likely to be friendly to an anti-war message, Maines felt it was important to let them all know that she had nothing in common with her hick fanbase in the US.

The message was basically, "I want to let y'all know that even though we're hugely popular among US pro-war hicks, we don't agree with them, and in fact are ashamed of being from Texas because we hate GW Bush that much."

It was really condescending to her US fans. She felt the need for her "more enlightened" foreign fans to know that she looks down upon her US fans and has nothing in common with them.

The US fanbase felt betrayed, and rightfully so. It was more of a swipe at them than GW Bush and the war itself. This is why her bashing of Toby Keith's "Red White and Blue" song, clearly from a left-wing viewpoint, didn't make much of a dent in the group's popularity, but her UK antics were a career killer.

Had she said this when performing in a US city, it wouldn't have been good, but I'm guessing the backlash would have been only a fraction of what she received.