By Barry Rubin
In the exchange over Ron Paul’s vindication of the September 11 attack in the Republican presidential debate there’s an important point being missed. Paul keeps insisting that Usama bin Ladin attacked America because the United States was occupying Muslim territory, particularly Saudi Arabia, and its treatment of the Palestinians.Continue reading How Presidents and Presidential Candidates Get the Motives behind September 11 Wrong
This is not true.
But equally, Rick Santorum was wrong when he remarked in response: “We were attacked, as Newt [Gingrich] talked about, because we have a civilization that is antithetical to the civilization of the jihadists.”
It is amazing that ten years after September 11 the truth is still not widely understood.
Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader(seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East
(Wiley), and The Truth About Syria
(Palgrave-Macmillan). His latest book is Israel: An Introduction, to be published by Yale University Press in January 2012. You can read more of Barry Rubin's posts at Rubin Reports, and now on his new blog, Rubin Reports, on Pajamas Media
Technorati Tag: Israel and Gaza and Hamas and Operation Cast Lead.
There are only three main factors for why Al Qaeda waged war to the level of September 11.
ReplyDelete1. Power – ultimately Al Qaeda is a co-op of militant groups that seek power, religion though serious to them is still an means to an end.
2. Force the concept of “clash of civilizations”, based on the assumption that such a clash will “unite” the Muslim world – under their control, of course.
3. The actual September 11 attack was the high-stakes attempt, clever and well done considering how security was managed at the time, but it was raised because before that point, the West and in particular the US, did not respond as was hoped.