There are levels of validity. Mine embraces more of the specific facts in the case under discussion. Yours is truncated; mine is more accurate.
In both cases taking a shortcut through a rough neighborhood with an empty tank was extremely foolish. In both cases the youths are worthless punks who deserve to die.
But they didn't seserve to die in your analogy. They only looted our assets. It took my correction of the analogy to reflect the moral dimension of the object of the analogy.
Working on the assumption that there will always be worthless punks in the city, can we please agree that the wisest course of action is to stay away from their neighborhoods?
Simplistic, and therefore not useful as an analogy. We can agree that the wisest course of action is to take another route, given your set-up to the analogy, i.e. my wife and I are on a private trip, there is another route available, our gas is low, etc. But it simplistic to say there is no situation in which any innocent upstanding citizen should go through the neighborhood. And there is no reason to cede the neighborhood to those who "deserve to die".
Or, for readers who are too obtuse to understand analogies: let's assume that there will always be evil psychopathic fanatics in this world and let's agree that it is unwise to effectively run their recruiting campaigns via US foreign policy.
Let us agree it is unwise to craft US foreign policy around the psychopaths, who, by your argument, will always be with us.
I advocate crafting US foreign policy around the prescriptions provided by Presidents Washington and Jefferson. That such policies would coincide with what bin Laden et al claim to want is not a reason to discount them.
Incidentally, I hope everyone realizes that bin Laden's actual motivation for his jihad is basically irrelevant. What is relevant is what he says, whether he is lying or not.
Let's assume that the Fox News punditry are correct when they say that he is motivated by a hatred for freedom, capitalism, and all other things virtuous. If that was his actual 'platform' then he would attract a following that would probably fit into one of his American-made SUVs. However, by broadcasting his list of alleged grievances - Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iraq etc - he has become a folk hero to vast numbers of muslims throughout the world.