ABSTRACT
The 1991 Gulf War, militarily known as ‘Operation Desert Storm’, started when the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein refused to withdraw his forces from the invaded and then annexed Arab state of Kuwait. The US also had their plans for Afghanistan. What the US government envisaged was not democracy and human rights for the Afghan people, but securing through agreements with the Taliban regime its oil-related interests. The US retaliation could only reinforce the popularity that bin Laden enjoyed among some young Muslims. According to some of respondents he had all the necessary requirements to present himself as the paladin of the oppressed Muslims. While the Russians were fighting their last post-Soviet conflict, the Americans suffered another attack. On 13 October 2000, a suicide bomber struck the ‘Cole’, one of the most powerful American warships.
