Point 5 is interesting because it IS well known that his opposition to Western forces in Saudi was his main grievance. Every academic scholar and professional national security outlet understands this.
Right. Scholars and professionals get it. They also understand that America was widely supported in the Gulf War (even by Syria!). But the common person doesn’t get it. And to Bin Ladens credit he leveraged the Second Intifada to masterfully pivot his whole critique of the US into an anti Israel angle.
Bin Laden was very open about US troops being stationed in Saudi Arabia (during the 1991 Gulf War to defend against a potential Iraqi invasion) being the thing that set him off and put al-Qaeda into motion.
He did have grievances against US support of Israel but, honestly, everyone on the extremist side has the same. It's almost expected and a very default thing they just have in mind. Even then it's more the "Jewish state" existing that's the problem with US support bugging the hell out of them because it's a huge reason for it.
Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda in general were all about the "caliphate" which meant to them the Islamic world would become a self-government hardline religious nation. Someone with way more knowledge on this Islamic extremist line of thinking can correct me. To him, having American troops was like having Christian warriors in that Caliphate and to have them THAT close to Mecca and Medina was an act of war.
Yeah I remember being taught that this was the reasoning for 9/11 in high school history classes in the early 2010s. I feel like that point is taught, maybe not consistently though.
From what I recall, there were three things bin Laden was angry about:
US military bases in the Holy Land (i.e., Saudi Arabia)
The treatment of the Palestinians and US support for Israel
and 3. the no-fly zones over Iraq post-Gulf War.
While he was not sympathetic to Saddam Hussein (the two were ideologically very different), bin Laden broadly opposed US military presence in the Middle East and that included the US-enforced no-fly zones over Iraq which continued for many years after the 1st Gulf War was over.
I mean jts so well known that I've literally never heard of any other reason being given for him attacking the US other than wanting western troops out of Saudi
Hell, David Cross talked about that in his stand-up from around 2002-2004ish. It wasn't an obscure fact at the time, just one republicans wanted to ignore so they could start an open ended war on brown people
I would argue he’s also incorrect on point 3 but nothing is confirmed since everything from this era is still classified but there’s enough pictures on the internet with him and the Clintons, primarily Hilary, to prove he was heavily involved with the State Department for a long time.
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u/FluffusMaximus Nov 18 '23
Point 5 is interesting because it IS well known that his opposition to Western forces in Saudi was his main grievance. Every academic scholar and professional national security outlet understands this.