In all fairness, yes one of BinLadin's stated grievances was that we had troops in Saudi.. that it was at the request of the Saudi leadership when Iraq was rolling into Kuwait apparently doesn't matter. (For what it's worth, OBL pledged his Afghani troops to 'em, and they decided on us instead. I guess he felt snubbed.
)
So yeah, that whole "Infidel on the Arabian Peninsula" thing certainly didn't help things (whether Gulf I was a wise idea is another discussion for another time).. but even a cursory review of the radicalized Jihadi writings* will show that yes indeed, they
do "hate our freedoms" and
do envision a world-wide Caliphate under Sharia**. And yes, given their beloved tactics of kidnapping, televised beheadings, and randomly blowing up civilians, I'd say yes.. they are evil.
And so no.. it's not just us "meddling in their affairs" that's the root cause of this thing. It's just that being the next "Big Dog on the Porch" we were the next most obvious target after the USSR left Afghanistan. We'd have been on their psycho hit list eventually regardless.
That Paul doesn't understand that
is a fatal flaw to my mind, but obviously he's got plenty of company on both sides of the aisle even now.
*Did I say all Muslims? No, I didn't. I said radical Jihadi.
**No, I don't think there's any serious possibility of that. That won't stop them from continuing to murder people in all sorts of dramatic ways in their attempt - until and unless they're wiped out.
