bin Laden was offended by the slow decline of Arabic civilization, particularly in Saudi Arabia, and felt that the only road to fixing that would be to implement sharia law and the hardest of hard line pure Islamism.
You may recognize the "ugly foreigners are the cause of all our problems" concept. It's taken up by such groups as the National Front, and here in the US by the KKK, and by morons everywhere around the world.
But why attack? When the US withdrew from Lebanon and Somalia, they gave hardass Islamists a roadmap to getting the US out of Saudi Arabia: just hit 'em hard, and they'll fold like paper tigers.
bin Laden said so quite directly, in his
1996 fatwa:
Quote:
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But your most disgraceful case was in Somalia; where- after vigorous propaganda about the power of the USA and its post cold war leadership of the new world order- you moved tens of thousands of international force, including twenty eight thousands American solders into Somalia. However, when tens of your solders were killed in minor battles and one American Pilot was dragged in the streets of Mogadishu you left the area carrying disappointment, humiliation, defeat and your dead with you. Clinton appeared in front of the whole world threatening and promising revenge , but these threats were merely a preparation for withdrawal. You have been disgraced by Allah and you withdrew; the extent of your impotence and weaknesses became very clear. It was a pleasure for the "heart" of every Muslim and a remedy to the "chests" of believing nations to see you defeated in the three Islamic cities of Beirut , Aden and Mogadishu.
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This, in turn, is why it's now vitally important for Iraq not to be seen as a US defeat.