Korean Job Discussion Forums

[gang ah jee]

I'm likely covering old ground, and silly question perhaps, but I find it quite interesting that there seems to be only limited consensus on the primary purpose of the 9/11 attacks.

Off the top of my head there seem to be three plausible main reasons:

1. Kill and frighten lots of Americans - which is, I guess, consistent with the "they hate our freedom" analysis of the attacks
2. To pressure the West to accede to al Qaeda political demands - Israel and Palestine, US off Arabian penninsula etc, see here
3. To precipitate overt conflict between the West and Islam - in the process radicalising moderate Muslims and creating global jihad

Of course there's lots of potential for overlap between these, but if we had to answer the question "why the 9/11 attacks?" what do you think the best single answer would be? This seems to me to be particularly important because those that give most weight to (2) are likely to have very different opinions about appropriate actions to those - such as myself - who are inclined towards (3).

Oh, and no doubt I've massively oversimplified this, so if anyone has any extra purposes or would like to comment, feel free. I would like to add, however, if you believe that the US government had any conscious involvement in the attacks, do not post here. You conspiracy softheads have enough threads as it is.

[Julius]

[Big_Bird]

3 always struck me as the number one reason. A typical terrorist strategy is to attack in order to provoke a bigger attack that kills innocents among your own group. Members of your group (i.e. in this case muslims or Arabs) who were not interested in your cause or conflict before, and were getting on happilly with their day to day lives, become enraged and radicalised, and voila, you've got a whole lot more people with you.

Retaliating with military force seemed to be the worse response we could have made. It was just what they were hoping for, and seems to have served their cause as far as radicalising more muslims than ever.

[thepeel]

They do hate our freedoms (by they, I mean the islamic lunatics) but that wasn't why they attacked the USA. They attacked the USA to "push the infidel from the land of mecca" first and foremost. After that, OBL wants to reestablish the islamic empire, kill all the Jews, overthrow the Saudi government and finish off his ideological islamic enemies.

[gang ah jee]

[Gopher]

[thepeel]

Didn't it work?

I'm only quoting from the horses mouth. OBL said that was his reason for it, and I take him at his word.

Maybe he thought that the Americans would not be able to take a bloody nose (like in Somalia) and leave the area? I dunno. Can we really ascribe logic and reason to such a religious person? Maybe god told him to? It worked for Bush.

[Gopher]

[thepeel]

[Sincinnatislink]

#3 is the only answer someone as bright as Osama Bin Laden (assuming he was responsible) would seriously try.

No, that aside does not mean I am a 9/11 truth person.

[gang ah jee]

[thepeel]

1) That is fair. But remember that he wants to resetabilsh the islamic empire. Saud is but one of many problem governments and also the one that hosts mecca and medina.

2) Very true. There are always many reasons. We often don't know why we do things, do we? Why did I post this?

I think that god played a role in Bush's decision. Actually, I don't think that Bush knew why he did it. His handlers made the decision and how he justified it to himself I don't know. Obviously, clearly, of course! it was about OIL.

[Sincinnatislink]

You were kidding on the oil part, right?

[seoulunitarian]

[gang ah jee]