RE: Why the "War on Terror" is (still) Nonsensical

On Thu, 17 Jan 2002 [email protected] wrote:

> > Clearly, leveling the World Trade towers, thus killing
> > several thousand people counts as terrorism, though it's 
> > unclear what the terrorists in question were trying to coerce the 
> > U.S. to do, apart from provoking it to war. 
> 
> Unclear? I thought it was pretty clear that the Taliban wants the U.S.
> to withdraw forces from the Gulf and end it's "bias" against
> Palistinians.

Er..is it actually established by any reasonable standard that the Taliban
were "behind" the attack as an expression of state policy toward the goals
you mention?

Beyond the actual hijackers, what other clear
terrorists-involved-with-the-attack are there?

(I do agree that this bit needs a touch of revision. After all, I first
read it as what were the terrorists *tactico-strategic* goals, not overall, 
long term goals. I mean, it *is* unclear what exactly they expected to
follow directly from the attack, other than terror in us and some sort of 
retaliation (heck, they may have expected us to give up and withdraw to
within our borders *or* to go nuts and alienate the arab and muslim
worlds *or* they might have been prepared for either *or*....))

Without having some people who were actually involve, it's hard to say
what the actual terrorists wanted.

Cheers,
Bijan.