[longshadow]

THe one thing that appears to be missing from this is that the near term motive for the terrorists is publicity for the ongoing Civil War for the heart and soul of the Islamic World. Christopher Hitchens has expounded on this view somewhat, perhaps others have, but it is not a widely held view.

None the less, I think there's merit to it: attacking the West is not an end unto itself, it is a means to an end. The fundie Moslems nutcases are vying for support, and to the extent they blow up things in London and New York, etc. they demonstrate their power, relevance, dedication, and efficacy to the rank and file Muslims. There near term goal is to overthrow all the secular governments in the Middle East and replace them with Taliban/Iranian style Islamic theocracies with Sharia-based legal systems.

The other points are well taken, but there's more to the story than their envy for the success of the Secular West over their system, which has been mired in stasis for a thousand years.

[PatrickHenry]

Of all the errors of the terrorists, perhaps their biggest mistake is in giving Islam the sole credit for the glories of their long-vannished golden age. In the West, our history is different. We had a thousand years of Greek and Roman civilization before Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the West.

We had Greek philosophy, Aristotelian logic, Euclidean geometry, Athenian architecture, Roman military and engineering skills, and a thriving superpower civilization, centuries before we had Christianity. So we know from our history that our religion is a complement to our culture; it's very far from being all there is to it.

The Muslim world doesn't have our experience. For them, everything happened at once -- Mohammed's religion, their military successes, and their high culture (largely inspired by the nations they conquered). They think that Islam alone was responsible for their success; so they imagine that Islam alone will restore all that they have lost.