Bin Laden is also bitterly opposed to the corrupt and repressive

[ThomasT]

... would you say that the motivation behind 9/11 is based on religious or economics means?

It's based on the fact that lots of people are angry at, or even hate, the US.

 

[wildman]

In my opinion, the motivation of 9/11 is simple. The US is the protector of the Saudi King. Bin Laden has been trying to overthrow the King for a long time. He attacks the King's protector. Makes perfect sense to me.

I agree that religion is just an excuse. On the other hand, to say that the motivation of 9/11 is terrorism is beyond silly.

 

[drankin]

In my opinion, the motivation of 9/11 is simple. The US is the protector of the Saudi King. Bin Laden has been trying to overthrow the King for a long time. He attacks the King's protector. Makes perfect sense to me.

I agree that religion is just an excuse. On the other hand, to say that the motivation of 9/11 is terrorism is beyond silly.

Those damn terrorists are just silly.

 

[wildman]

Those damn terrorists are just silly.

They wouldn't be dangerous if they were silly. They know what they are doing. Hey! 9/11 got rid of Saddam Hussein who Bin Laden hated. I would say 9/11 was quite effective.

 

[drankin]

They wouldn't be dangerous if they were silly. They know what they are doing. Hey! 9/11 got rid of Saddam Hussein who Bin Laden hated. I would say 9/11 was quite effective.

Your theory is that the motivation behind the attacks was because US protects the Saudi king.

Why not just run planes into the Saudi king? Or would that be silly?

Regardless of why Binboy wanted to strike at the US, he had to convince a bunch of chumps to sacrifice themselves in order to accomplish it. This is an important point because that is the tool that's being used. He didn't tell them to obliterate themselves because the US protects the Saudi king. These guys weren't complete idiots. They flew airliners.

The objective was to cause destruction against a society. Regardless of the role that the individuals targeted played. The West refers to this as "terrorism". If we didn't call it that, we could just call it "warfare". It would be more appropriate IMO. Hence, the war on "terror". Pretty vague thing to declare war on but if they didn't call it that they would have to call it a war on Islamic Extremeism (which is still pretty vague)... and very unpolitically correct.

 

[mheslep]

I agree that religion is just an excuse. ...

That's misinformation wildman. Bin Laden and his followers are fanatically religious.

 

[SW VandeCarr]

That's misinformation wildman. Bin Laden and his followers are fanatically religious.

I agree. I believe that most jihadists believe they are doing God's work although I'm sure there are some opportunists or those with personal scores to settle in the mix. But al Qaeda is not apocalyptic afaik. They have 'earthly' objectives.They want to restore the Caliphate. What worries me more is if enough of the ruling oligarchy of Iran has an apocalyptic view such that they would launch a nuclear attack against Israel and accept the retaliation.

http://www.iran-press-service.com/articles_2001/dec_2001/rafsanjani_nuke_threats_141201.htm

This report dates from 14 Dec, 2001. On 30 Dec IPS reported that this was not Iran's policy although I don't know how much value we should place on that.

http://www.iran-press-service.com/articles_2001/dec_2001/israel_iran_nule_threat_301201.htm