Chapter 2 "The Foundation of the New Terrorism" Summary and Analysis

Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, had called for attacks against the United States since 1992. However, his periodic statements singling out the U.S. for attack went largely unnoticed before 9/11. Bin Laden seems to have become convinced that a rag-tag army of Muslim fighters could drive the U.S. out of the Middle East. To bin Laden, the U.S. was a paper tiger. His pronouncements about the importance and duty of every Muslim to kill Americans and Jews cites numerous examples of the U.S. withdrawing after suffering casualties to its troops. In particular, he cites the 1983 Beirut suicide bombing that killed 241 U.S. Marines and the 1993 firefight in Somalia that downed a Black Hawk helicopter. Both incidents were followed by hasty U.S...