John LeBoutillier
Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2001

What do the terrorists want?

We have been inundated with stories and reports of the who, the how and the where these attacks were planned, paid for, carried out. But we have yet to focus on the bigger picture.

So, let us hypothesize for a moment.

Beginning in February 1993 with the first World Trade Center bombing, we have seen several attacks on the United States – or our embassies overseas. There was the Khobar Towers attack in Saudi Arabia followed by the two U.S. Embassies in Africa and then last October's attack on the USS Cole.

There were two other acts – or seeming acts – of terror that the public was told by the Clinton administration were not related to international terrorism: the Oklahoma City bombing and the crash of TWA 800.

Is it possible that both of these were, in fact, further acts of Mideast terror (bin Laden/Saddam inspired) but that for domestic political reasons the Clinton team decided not to inflame the American people?

The TWA 800 disaster was just two months before the Atlanta Olympics – and it was a presidential election year. Can you imagine what would have happened if the American people knew that terrorists armed with Stinger shoulder-launched missiles could shoot down any airliner any time they wanted anywhere in the United States? Panic would have ensued, the airline industry would have gone out of business – and the entire economy would have noticeably slowed – as it is doing today.

So Team Clinton – using the CIA and FBI – created a 'plausible' but ridiculous explanation for a 747 to blow up from an electrical short in an empty fuel tank.

OK, so we have at least seven horrendous acts of terror against the 'Great Satan.'

And what response?

Virtually nothing! A few Cruise missiles lobbed into Afghanistan at some empty training camps. And a few more Iraqi radar installations knocked down.

Seven times – prior to Sept. 11 – the Saddam/bin Laden team jabbed at America. But America hardly responded.

Frustrated, the Saddam/bin Laden team decided to escalate the level of terror. Instead of killing a few hundred Americans per incident, they opted for a major attack that would kill thousands and really shake the American people.

Why?

Because these radical Arabs want America to come over there, bomb indiscriminately – and thus inflame the Muslim world.

Osama bin Laden, in his sick messianic mind, wants to wipe out so-called 'moderate Arab' governments – specifically Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. His dream is to 'radicalize' the Muslim world – with himself as the 'spiritual' leader.

Saddam Hussein is a more practical leader. He uses bin Laden's fervency to his advantage. Personally, Saddam is not a fundamentalist. He is merely a butcher sitting atop billions of dollars of oil that he wants to sell in order to finance a military that could conquer the Middle East.

The two – bin Laden and Saddam – need each other.

Saddam needs the fanatical devotion that bin Laden's suicide killers possess. And bin Laden needs the financial and intelligence support that Saddam can provide.

Both want the same thing: an angry U.S. to come into the Middle East in a full frontal assault. In their view, this sight would rally the 'little people' of the Muslim world to their radical, anti-Western vision.

Much as Iran went into a fundamentalist fury 23 years ago, they hope to duplicate that throughout the Muslim Middle East.

Saddam probably hopes that at some point U.S. forces – already totally focused on bin Laden and not on Saddam – knock off bin Laden, thus leaving Saddam as the unquestioned leader of the newly radicalized Middle East.

With the pro-U.S. Arab governments in Cairo, Amman and Ryadh replaced by radicals, Saddam sees himself as the unquestioned leader of the region. Furthermore, with the combined forces and oil of these nations, he would be able to back down his longtime foe to the East, Iran.

This may explain why the United States has so far not hit the Arab world hard for eight acts of unspeakable murder.

We may believe that by not 'rising to the bait' we are doing the wise thing.

We are not giving bin Laden and Saddam the very sight they want: thousands of dead Arabs and Muslims.

This is merely a hypothesis.

However, one thing is certain: Until the U.S. goes over there and removes both bin Laden and Saddam, we will continue to lose this war.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Middle East
War on Terrorism