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UBL has already justified his future actions by labeling his Jihad a defensive one.

When in reality, he is the one who struck first. But then I suspect he would reach back to our support of Israel to reclaim the justification.

Eye for an eye again. We chose our fate.

Yes, a recurring theme.

At first his rant about Global Warming might seem odd, but I think this section unlocks what he is getting at.

This is a stretch, but given much PC regarding GW, especially in Europe and uber liberals here, working to further bolster his 'defense' position.

Since day one al Qaida core has proclaimed that they wanted to bleed America's economy after 9/11... this quote shows 1) that UBL is updated on what is happening and 2) that he seems to believe the U.S. is very unstable and that al Qaida's technique has paid off thus far. The question to be asked is: Have we bled enough in his eyes for the next hit?

Hmmmm, did AQ time 911 to coincide with the recession the country had entered, or was that a side benefit? Perhaps, with hindsight, OBL sees how deeply a mega attack can affect the US economy and may be judging that ours is in a precarious position.

The invitation to Islam.

Conversion is the step to domination. I have to agree, we are a big step closer to their next attempt. Makes me wonder more about the options (?) trade that is betting on the stock-market tanking by the end of the month.

When in reality, he is the one who struck first. But then I suspect he would reach back to our support of Israel to reclaim the justification.

Of course he would... when all else fails he can fall back on the Arab/Israeli conflict and blame us for the power of Israel. I think that's an argument he doesn't have much trouble convincing "the street" of so he focuses on specific instances of Americans fighting Muslims on their lands.

Hmmmm, did AQ time 911 to coincide with the recession the country had entered, or was that a side benefit? Perhaps, with hindsight, OBL sees how deeply a mega attack can affect the US economy and may be judging that ours is in a precarious position.

In many ways I think a mega attack has greater consequences today than it would have on 9/11. The 9/11 attack was a set of small shots to bleed us for a bit. It succeeded in temporarily crippling portions of the airline industry and sent shockwaves of uncertainty throughout the market that continue today with oil prices and the like. Billions upon billions has been spent to protect us against a litany of threats but we have no certainty that we can stop the next attack because it's so hard to track down such small groups of fanatical people. We have much of our military on constant rotation; this causes our equipment to degrade quicker, our troops to get tired in the long-term and ensures that we have more limited resources to respond to either an attack at home or a major war changing attack in the Iraq-Afghanistan (with Iran in the center) theater.

Considering what we have had to endure the past few years we are doing remarkably well on the economic front. It has to be viewed as at least somewhat fragile I think even to someone who has a very rosy picture of the situation. A mega attack or some other significant combination of attacks could prove to set things in motion to go from fragile to broken.

I think a combination of attacks at home and a major attack against the military overseas could prove to be a difficult situation to deal with. IF AQ has, or ever has, nuclear capability I wonder if it might be easier for them to try using it in a place other than the U.S.