I'm reminded of the book "Revolt in the Desert" by T. E Lawrence, where Arabs were effectively led into battle by Lawrence against the Turks. The key ingredients in that war happened to be leadership and money, and the British provided both -- the junior officer, Arabic speaking Lawrence provided leadership over what were otherwise warring tribes; and the British commanding general, Allenby, provided Lawrence with the necessary gold to pay tribal chieftains for their help -- and the Arabs swept North, on Allenby's desert flank, to capture Damascus and expel the Turks.
This time, Arabs see Israel as the enemy and the Saudies have the gold; so ...
The whole world is in trouble if a terrorist shows up to lead the Arabs.
But Israel wasn't the enemy, at least not the primary one. He chose the USA, because he deemed it the influence that needed to be removed, much like the Ottoman Empire.
Bin Laden's desire, and even expectation, was that he could unite all the arabs, and perhaps all of Islam, against the USA. He hoped to provoke a Jihad against the West and drive it out of the Islamic world.
But he underestimated us and he certainly underestimated our President. We are not the Ottoman Empire, and Osama is no Lawrence of Arabia. Had we not responded in the fashion in which we did, it's possible that Osama could have succeeded. I'm not sure. Instead, he's either on the run or his corpse is rotting in some collapsed cave in Afghanistan and his followers are being tracked and hunted down.
Will another leader arise? It's certainly possible. The conditions that created an Osama bin Laden are still in place. But the world has taken note of what happened to terrorists and their accomplices in the former Taliban government.
The fate of the world hung in the balance immediately following September 11, but the outcome now is shifting in our favor and against those who would challenge us.