ABSTRACT
Of special concern to Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida “terrorist” network is the aggression they see the US as having wielded over Islamic nations. For instance, they complain the US has troops stationed in Saudi Arabia, a holy land of Islam. The US has historically strongly supported Israel – militarily and diplomatically – against the “Palestinian people”. The US and its closest allies (the UK and Australia) are seen as having invaded Iraq with insufficient evidence of weapons of mass destruction. The UN – with the US at its head (when it supported the UN) – disarmed and then stood by while some 100,000 ethnic Albanians were slaughtered in 1998. And a recent ally of the US, Russia, has been trying to defeat (or destroy) the Chechen Islamic radicals in their bid for dominance in the area.
