[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Bin Laden concedes that Sept. 11 failed to achieve al Qaeda's strategic goals. In fact, events since then have moved in just the opposite direction.

Bin Laden misread the Americans - as if we'd cow and succumb. Well that would have happened in the Clinton administration and under Howard Dean.

[fourhorsemen]

Bin Laden misread the Americans - as if we'd cow and succumb.

Bin Laden read Americans perfectly - where he completely failed was in misreading Arabs, who he thought would rise up against the Americans when they sent their forces after Al Qaeda. His goal was to cause an anti-American uprising in the middle east which would lead to the toppling of pro-american regimes. As Stratfor points out in earlier assessments, we acted exactly as Bin Laden had hoped, however the rest of the Arab world fell in line as we demanded.