There is a connection in that the jihadis who perpetrated 9/11 could not have expected a better outcome. They knew the US reaction would be a swift and brutal vengeance against a Muslim country. Those who attacked the USA on 9/11 were all “Muslims, of whom 15 belonged to Saudi Arabia, two were from the UAE and one from Egypt” one from Pakistan.
Iraq is the perfect strategic background for Islamic revolutionaries to continue (indefinitely it seems) the global jihad against the infidel Muslims and the infidel Westerners. (This is different from Iraqi nationals who are fighting the Military occupation. who really knows? since the information we are getting is suspect.) How astute would the jihadis have to be to guess that Bush would attack Iraq? The world knew that the Bush administration had Saddam Hussein in their sights. PNAC
Count how many times the name Saddam Hussein is mentioned and check the signatories of this document.
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Looking backwards at the history of Islamic extremism to its foundation from WWII until today, we can start with Sayyid Qutb (COO-tub).
Qutb was the most influential advocate in modern times of jihad, or Islamic holy war, and the chief developer of doctrines that legitimise violent Muslim resistance to regimes that claim to be Muslim,[…]
In the context of that global programme, the destruction of the twin towers, spectacular atrocity though it was, is merely a by-blow in al-Qaida’s current campaign. Neither the US nor Israel is Bin Laden’s primary target – rather it is Bin Laden’s homeland, Saudi Arabia. Link
Osama was actually taught by Qutb’s brother Mohammed in Saudi Arabia.
Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Mohammed Atta were all influenced by the lessons in hate taught by Sayyid Qutb. Qutb actually lived in the USA for two years in the mid 1950’s. His “gripes about America require serious attention because they cast light on a question that has been nagging since the fall of the World Trade Center [as well as the attack on the Pentagon and the destruction of AA 93]: Why do they hate us?”
David Von Drehle claims that Qutb “read nearly every American encounter – a clash of New World versus Old.”
Qutb:
“This great America: What is its worth in the scale of human values? He wondered.
“And what does it add to the moral account of humanity?”
His answer: nothing.
See, “The Smithsonian” A LESSON IN HATE by David Von Drehle of the Washington Post.
So the hatred springs from a deeper source than disgust at corrupt Western political involvement in the Middle East. Violence against Muslim countries should outrage all Muslims, but for the jihadis it is opportunity. GWB far from protecting America has played right into their hands.