He had a Malcom X quote to go with that.
I think it ironic that he would study the US now ,now that it is propbly too late to use the knoledge.
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Al Qaeda has known a lot about the US for quite a while now. They are never going to win, even in Saudi Arabia.
No amount of knowledge of the US will convince anyone to let them rule any sizable bunch of people for very long.
They can bomb stuff and be annoying, and that's about it.
They bombed us to annoyance a dozen times , killing hundreds before 9-11 and probly being puzzled at our unwillingness to take the bait.
When they finally harmed us enough to rouse our ire for real they were overwhelmed in a wave of military power that they had not imagined , looseing half their number the first year, giveing up all the territory of Afganistan in a few months, they exist now as a totally underground guerilla movement , financed by crime and driven by confusion.I wonder if they have realised the situation enough to adjust their policys , or will they return to irritateingly killing a few hundred of us constantly and makeing a big score occasionly?
They said and really did beleive that we would be awed and dismayed by suicidal attacks , they thought the Umma (all the people of Islam) would be inspired to rise with them and make victory certain. They predicted very poorly , and their actions seem very foolish in hindsight .
How much foresight would it have taken to know we would not be overawed by a few suicidal attackers and a few thousand casualtys? Are historys of WWII totally unavailible to them? Acting in knoledge of their own history only, was a serious error.
What might happen next , after their defeat become obvious , might be a modern version of the Marshall plan . The Marshall plan was the real defeat of the NATZIs because it robbed them of any potential of a revival in the population , because people won't give up prosperity for an idea that has failed them already.
Lets remind me that I predicted , after a while , in the future we might know whether I am a better predictor than the typical Al Queda leader.