I think that you're making a mistake in taking what Bin Laden said at face value. He was trying to goad us into invading Afghanistan, and he was successful. H

I think that you're making a mistake in taking what Bin Laden said at face value. He was trying to goad us into invading Afghanistan, and he was successful. He wanted a "War on Terror" because he knew that it would be unwinable. Painting his justification for the attack in a way that Americans would read as an attack on the people and the government encouraged the jingoism that gave us the Patriot Act and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That's how Bin Laden won the war on terror.