What would Bin Laden want the US to do?

Holy shit, thats scary. WHo knows how many OBL 's there are out there?

Take your first estimate and double it. Mind you, I'm a pessimist.

So he wants us out of the middle east, or he wants us to stop siding with the Israeli government?

Would he ease up if we more-or-less abandoned Israel? Or is it too late for that?

Hes' as insane at Hitler. He just wants his own philosophies vindicated. What can we do? He wants us to martyr him, it s all in his plan for egomaniacal life

What makes you think he's crazy?

Indeed. Let's drop this pretence of insanity, shall we? Everyone involved in this knew exactly what they were doing, and it certainly wasn't on a whim.

From a perceptive Village Voice article:

"One cannot understand Bin Ladin without understanding his relationship to his native Saudi Arabia--arguably the center of a concentric circle of Islamist angst. In various interviews, Bin Ladin has described himself not as a terrorist, but as a defender of the true faith against a corrupt Saudi monarchy that has committed sacrilege by allowing an (infidel) U.S. army presence in sacred Muslim land. "After the Americans entered the Holy Land, many emotions were roused in the Muslim world--more than we have seen before," Bin Ladin recently told ABC News.

Indeed, it has not been lost on terrorist experts--and Bin Ladin watchers in particular--that the bombings came on the anniversary of the first U.S. Desert Shield troop deployment inside Saudi Arabia. While many secular Saudis don't necessarily share Bin Ladin's angry zeal, they do simmer with resentment at the Saudi elite's hypocrisy and the American presence, says Scott Armstrong, a national security expert who has conversed with figures sympathetic to Bin Ladin. And they have a point. Asone former State Department foreign service officer candidly characterized the situation in a 1996 interview, "The role of the U.S. military presence there is to make sure the Saudis can defend themselves in a pinch, but still be reliant on us for real defense.[Saudi Arabia] is a strategic position we don't want to withdraw from.

http://www.franksmyth.com/home/franksmyth.nsf/e04798c1e238e42cc1256 3e700522e83/cc7454040ad6bbbf8525672400701647?OpenDocument

(sorry for absence of proper HTML link)

Also see Judith Miller article dated 12th September

She has been a correspondent for The New York Times since 1977, reporting from throughout the world and concentrating on the Middle East and the former Soviet republics. She has covered Osama bin Laden since 1993. In this interview, conducted September 12, 2001, Miller talks about what was learned about bin Laden's network from the trials of the 1998 U.S. embassy terrorists and from the failed series of attacks planned to coincide with the millennium celebrations. She also discusses the warnings prior to the September 11, 2001, attack in the U.S., the obstacles facing U.S. intelligence, and why bin Laden's network hates the U.S.

I might be misremembering here but I think Judith Miller is one of the so-called "experts" on "international" terrorism who spent the 80s saying the whole thing was all funded by the soviet union. Hmmm.

Look, I feel bad banging on about my apparently obsessive perspective on this but I am still somewhat gobsmacked that the people whose "studies" and ~"specialism" and "scholarship" left America totally wide open to this horrible attack are being treated as if, yes, they above all predicted and can explain events.

(also: tho I disagree with martian's analysis he has of course done sterling work putting up links and generally keeping people in the picture — thank you martian)

Some questions i hope someone more knowledgable than i may be able to answer:

would bin laden want to unite the arab or islamic world, which is quite disparate?
would US bombing of 'any islamic' country go someway to achieving this, as civilian deaths increase?
is the bombing of Afghanistan, and possibly Iraq, a consequence bin laden had factored in, and maybe hoped for?
does Bin Laden possibly want to unite the non-islamic world in anti- islamic feeling and US support, and would this go someway to making a 'clash of civilisations'?
which way will countries like Morocco and Malaysia go after US reprisal? if the govts still support US, would his idea be to fan anti-americanism among the populace, hastening the removal of moderate regimes?

Bin Laden and/or the Taliban have been active in America, but also against Russia (in support of Chechnia, and possibly Dagestan?), and, i believe, in Western China (Xianjang (sp?) province i think). is the aim here to incite antagonism from all angles (eventually?) to give more credence and power to own cause?

Iraq being talked about as a possible secondary target. although saddam has predictably applauded the attacks on america, how closely linked is he? iraq is anything but a fundamentalist state, and i cannot see how either the taliban or Bin Laden would be in favour of him (even if they are backed in any way by him). saddam would presumably be aware of this? i don't think Iraq recognises the Taliban govt (only UAE, Saudi and Pakistan i think).

these are questions i don't really have any answers to.