[ricpic]

In the 19th century, when the Brits had an empire on which the sun never set, the Bin Laden's of that time hated them with the same irrational passion with which they hate us today. The difference was that lethal technology was not available to third world hotheads back then.
It may very well be that Bin Laden hates us for the reasons you list. But at bottom, we are dealing with the same seething resentment that the British faced over a hundred years ago. People living in futureless squalor, knowing in their heart of hearts that the thing that would get them out of their condition not to be found in their own culture, unwilling to make the changes offered them by western culture (symbolized by the US), and so turning on that culture with a ferocity born of self-loathing despair.
There is no dealing with such people other than to make it abundantly clear to them that any attack on us will be repaid ten times over.

[A_perfect_lady]

There is no dealing with such people other than to make it abundantly clear to them that any attack on us will be repaid ten times over.

I agree 100%. But I'm trying to come up with things that our own little 5th column can't refute. They dismiss everything you said out of hand and there's no reasoning with them. I'm trying to come up with things that they can't simply dismiss. If OBL says these are his reasons (even if you and I know darn well they aren't) they have to deal with that. And as you know, they believe everything they hear... unless it comes out of a Republican's mouth.