by David Aaron

About the author: David Aaron served as deputy national security advisor during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis in which fifty-two Americans were held for fourteen months. He is a senior national adviser at Dorsey and Whitney LLP in Washington, D.C.

It was not about us; it was about them. That is the thing to understand about the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Many motives may have figured in the minds of those who directed this atrocity. Perhaps they hate us, as some pundits say, because we are rich, or because of our liberal and secular culture, or because of our support for Israel— but none of these reasons is fundamental. The basic objective of the terrorists is to destroy the Middle Eastern governments that are friendly to the...