How Presidents and Presidential Candidates Get the Motives behind September 11 Wrong

By Barry Rubin

In the exchange over Ron Paul’s vindication of the September 11 attack in the Republican presidential debate there’s an important point being missed. Paul keeps insisting that Usama bin Ladin attacked America because the United States was occupying Muslim territory, particularly Saudi Arabia, and its treatment of the Palestinians.

This is not true.

But equally, Rick Santorum was wrong when he remarked in response: “We were attacked, as Newt [Gingrich] talked about, because we have a civilization that is antithetical to the civilization of the jihadists.”

It is amazing that ten years after September 11 the truth is still not widely understood.

Read it all:
http://pajamasmedia.com/barryrubin/2011/09/15/how-presidents-and-presidential-candidates-get-the-motives-behind-september-11-wrong/