Bin Laden Is Not Well Read And

When I Arrived In Beirut From Europe, I Felt The Oppressive, Damp Heat, Saw The Unkempt Palm Trees And Smelt The Arabic Coffee, The Fruit Stalls And The Over-spiced Meat. It Was The Beginning Of The Orient. And When I Flew Back To Beirut From Iran, I Could Pick Up The British Papers, Ask For A Gin And Tonic At Any Bar, Choose A French, Italian, Or German Restaurant For Dinner. It Was The Beginning Of The West. All Things To All People, The Lebanese Rarely Questioned Their Own Identity.

The Word 'democracy' And The Name Of Assad Do Not Blend Very Well In Much Of Syria.

I've Never Seen A Single Demonstration In Pakistan, In The Streets Of Gaza, In The West Bank, In Which The People Have Come Out With Signs Saying, "please Give Us Better Roads. Please Give Us New Prenatal Clinics. Please Give Us A New Sewage System." I'm Sure They'd Like Those Things, But It's Not What They Demand In The Demonstrations. In The Demonstrations, They Talk About Justice, They Talk About An End To Israeli Occupation.

After The Allied Victory Of 1918, At The End Of My Father's War, The Victors Divided Up The Lands Of Their Former Enemies. In The Space Of Just Seventeen Months, They Created The Borders Of Northern Ireland, Yugoslavia And Most Of The Middle East. And I Have Spent My Entire Career — In Belfast And Sarajevo, In Beirut And Baghdad — Watching The People Within Those Borders Burn.

Osama Bin Laden Is Not Well Read And He's Not Sophisticated, But He Will Have Worked Out Very Coldly What America Would Do In Response To This Attack 9/11. I'm Sure He Wanted America To Attack Afghanistan. Once You Do What Your Enemy Wants, You Are Walking Into A Trap, Whether You Think It's The Right Thing To Do Or Not.