Also think about this...
"...defining the adversary as 'terror' made it easier [for the Bush administration] to deflect public attention from evidence suggesting that it was America's quasi-imperial role that was provoking resistance-and would continue to do so. In truth, as Daniel Pipes has correctly noted, terror is a tactic, not an enemy 1. But by insisting that its quarrel was with terror-rather than, for example, with radical Islam- the United States obscurred the political roots of the confrontation. U.S officials dismissed as irrelevant the fact that Osama bin Laden's actions (however contemptible) represented an expression of strongly held convictions: a deep seated resentment of the U.S. military presence in the Persian Gulf and a determination to remove that presence by whatever means necessary 2." 3
1 Daniel Pipes, "What Bush Got Right-and Wrong," Jerusalem Post, September 26, 2001..
2 In a videotape released on October 7,2001, Osama bin Laden vowed to continue his war against the United States until "all the army of infidels depart the land of Muhammad," referring to the U.S military pesence in Saudi Arabia; "Bin Laden's Statement: "The Sword Fell," New York Times, October 8, 2001, p. B7.
3 2 Andrew J. Bacevich, "American Empire: The Realities and Consequences Of U.S. Diplomacy," Harvard University Press, 2003, Ch.8, p. 231.