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I seem to recall a group of Saudis flying planes into buildings some years ago before the US went back to war in Iraq & Afghanistan. I'm curious how your logic

I seem to recall a group of Saudis flying planes into buildings some years ago before the US went back to war in Iraq & Afghanistan. I'm curious how your logic follows? Seems to me the largest terrorist attack ever in the good ol' US of A (world?) precedes your hypothesis.

gambiting 9y ago
The 9/11 attack is the best proof that Americans have no idea what they are doing around the world - Bin Laden himself has said that the attack was meant to make Americans look into policies of their own government and realize what sort of harm they are doing abroad. Instead, America(or at least, most of it) assumed that the attacks were the result of some brown people really hating freedom - so the terrorists have actually completely failed at their stated objective there. Instead, US used it to justify further expansion of the military and invigilation of their own citizens. It's explained really well in this comment, if you can be bothered to read it: https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/wcpls/this_i_my_friends_son_being_searched_by_the_tsa/c5cabqo/ https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/wcpls/this_i_my_friend...
- andrewem 9y ago
  Anyone who believes that they can gain sympathy for their cause in a country by indiscriminately killing people there is misguided. When someone's policy is mass murder that would happily target me, it's hard for me to muster much interest in whatever point they might be trying to make. So I'm perfectly happy to say US policies in many countries have been greatly harmful, and also give a big middle finger to people who want to kill me.
- DoubleCribble 9y ago
  Your preceding comment was that the modern terrorist problem was a result of wars in Iraq & Afghanistan. Check your history books, the first major attempt on the twin towers was eight years prior, back in '93. Two US embassies were blown up in '98. Obviously, the terrorist problem existed long before those two wars and targeted many western countries, the US is no exception here other than the scale of the world's most famous attack.
  - danbruc 9y ago
    The USA interfered with the middle east essentially since the end of the second world war. There were several generation since then and it seems not unreasonable that their motivation is based in different events. While the motivation for 9/11 and earlier attacks certainly did not come from the last war in Iraq or Afghanistan, this does not rule out that the current generation is not significantly motivated by those. It quickly becomes a rather philosophical question how many steps you want to go back in the chain of events in order to pick one as the cause.

gambiting 9y ago

The 9/11 attack is the best proof that Americans have no idea what they are doing around the world - Bin Laden himself has said that the attack was meant to make Americans look into policies of their own government and realize what sort of harm they are doing abroad. Instead, America(or at least, most of it) assumed that the attacks were the result of some brown people really hating freedom - so the terrorists have actually completely failed at their stated objective there. Instead, US used it to justify further expansion of the military and invigilation of their own citizens. It's explained really well in this comment, if you can be bothered to read it: https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/wcpls/this_i_my_friends_son_being_searched_by_the_tsa/c5cabqo/ https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/wcpls/this_i_my_friend...

andrewem 9y ago
Anyone who believes that they can gain sympathy for their cause in a country by indiscriminately killing people there is misguided. When someone's policy is mass murder that would happily target me, it's hard for me to muster much interest in whatever point they might be trying to make. So I'm perfectly happy to say US policies in many countries have been greatly harmful, and also give a big middle finger to people who want to kill me.
DoubleCribble 9y ago
Your preceding comment was that the modern terrorist problem was a result of wars in Iraq & Afghanistan. Check your history books, the first major attempt on the twin towers was eight years prior, back in '93. Two US embassies were blown up in '98. Obviously, the terrorist problem existed long before those two wars and targeted many western countries, the US is no exception here other than the scale of the world's most famous attack.
- danbruc 9y ago
  The USA interfered with the middle east essentially since the end of the second world war. There were several generation since then and it seems not unreasonable that their motivation is based in different events. While the motivation for 9/11 and earlier attacks certainly did not come from the last war in Iraq or Afghanistan, this does not rule out that the current generation is not significantly motivated by those. It quickly becomes a rather philosophical question how many steps you want to go back in the chain of events in order to pick one as the cause.