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It would be OK if Ron Paul were right, but he's not. UBL's stated reasons for declaring war on the U.S. are good PR in the Arab world, nothing more. He's selling an ugly Salafist product, wrapped in sexy packaging of Resistance to Foreign Aggression!

Bin Laden was not then, is not now, nor will he in the future, open to being placated by a U.S. withdrawl from the Middle East, troops, aid, and politically speaking. No apology will appease him. No action or inaction will prove our contrition to him.

Ron Paul isn't wrong, as far as remembering how the transcript of Bin Laden's fatwa reads. Paul is wrong because he's taking UBL at face value.

He's wrong because he believes him.

It would be OK if Ron Paul were right, but he's not. UBL's stated reasons for declaring war on the U.S. are good PR in the Arab world, nothing more. He's selling an ugly Salafist product, wrapped in sexy packaging of Resistance to Foreign Aggression!

You're mistaking cause and effect.

Osama would be a grease smear under a Russian tank tread if it weren't for American support. Likewise Hamas wouldn't exist if not for Israel backing Hamas against the PLO(during the first Intifada).

So Ron Paul is right, to an extent. If it weren't for US intervention, AQ very likely wouldn't be a problem. However, if the US didn't support the Taliban and proto-AQ Russia would have a strong position in the middle east today and may not have collapsed. It's a matter of picking your poison.

What the US does need to do though is take a long view. Does the way we deal with threats today create more threats tomorrow? US policy making needs to be less ideological and more realistic. That includes bumping off threats before they can be a problem(if the US had quietly wiped out the Taliban leaders in the 80's ...) and less whinging for "democracy"(you can see how well democracy worked for the occupied territories).

It would be OK if Ron Paul were right, but he's not. UBL's stated reasons for declaring war on the U.S. are good PR in the Arab world, nothing more. He's selling an ugly Salafist product, wrapped in sexy packaging of Resistance to Foreign Aggression!

Paul is right whether Bin Laden really means what he says or not. He may merely be trying to appeal to the masses with his talk of fighting foreign aggression, but it doesn't matter, because it does in fact appeal to the masses. The U.S.' policies in the middle east have been very helpful to AQ's recruiting, whether or not that's really Bin Laden's beef.