That's not a "reason for 9/11". That's exploitation of the easily manipulated.
That may be true in the case of OBL himself...he may not believe the propaganda he spews...or maybe he does genuinely believe it...in the end it doesn't matter what he believes, because he's only orchestrating the movement and recruiting members through his public statements. The hijackers...the ones who killed themselves while killing 3000 Americans...there is every reason to believe that they believe the propaganda. Poll after poll shows widespread Muslim distrust and dislike of American government policies...and AQ has been able to exploit that. Ron Paul's point is that the sanctions on Iraq were one of the reasons AQ attacked us on 9/11. In that, he is 100% correct because that is what AQ declared immediately after the attack. Whether or not OBL himself is angered by sanctions on Iraq is irrelevant...he says it because he knows its a good recruiting tool. And as Michael Scheurer said in my post above, when the US invades Iraq (whether the reasons were noble or not), Muslims see it as validation of what AQ has said about the US.
American intervention in the region has been the greatest help to AQ's recruiting because, as the April 2006 NIE stated, the jihadist movement is growing. It would be a wnderful thing if we could kill every jihadist and exterminate the movement once and for all. But, the nearly 6 years since 9/11 have convinced me that the US military presence that is needed in the middle east to kill jihadists is itself spawning them faster than we're killing them. Should the US leave the region, OBL loses his greatest recruiting pitch...that the US is seeking to dominate and humiliate Muslims
You seem like a sharp guy, and the rest of your post is actually quite acccurate. Allow me to unscramble the last few steps, which are hidden in this quote above.
Whether or not OBL himself is angered by sanctions on Iraq is irrelevant...he says it because he knows its a good recruiting tool.
Think about it. Recruiting for what? Why does a Sunni/Salafist group created to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan need a recruiting tool in the late 90s? That answer, once you come to it, will put everything else in context.
when the US invades Iraq (whether the reasons were noble or not), Muslims see it as validation of what AQ has said about the US.
And if AQ is right about that, Muslims wonder, what else might they be right about?
Truth is, Bin Laden wants a Global War on Infidels. All of them. His core followers believe that they are living in end times, and that the time for a final struggle between pure Muslims and others is at hand. Unfortunately for him, most Muslims don't really feel that way. It's way to extreme too extreme at first glance. So how does he recruit for his holy war, then?
Easy. He does it in installments.
From Algeria to Sudan to England to Indonesia, there are Muslims facing local problems. Problems ranging from Sharia unfriendly natives to open warfare. Problems that Bin Laden doesn't really care about, except as recruiting tools. The people want to resist, and he is a resistance fighter of great credibility. He offers expertise, resources, and theological support in their struggles.
These struggles, including Iraq, are all local in nature, but provide him moral context and generate societal support within the entire Muslim world. As a Salafist, he has no real base of support, aside from a tiny band of religious fanatics. In order to broaden his appeal to wage a global war, he must absorb major conflicts and the affected Muslims therin, or his movement will perish.
This is precisely why his fatwas on Iraq and Saudi Arabia are a ruse.
If America sank beneath the ocean tomorrow in a massive earthquake, the next day the jihad wouldn't end. It didn't end when the Soviet Union fell, and it won't end if we fall. There's nothing we can do to avoid it. Certainly, as you stated, we can exacerbate it, but we cannot appease it. Trying to blow it apart with JDAMs only seems to inflame it.
Once you accept the true nature of the global jihad, you realize how delicate the problem really is. But rest assured, Bin Laden and the 19 hijackers did not attack America because of Iraq.
the biggest mistake the west ever made was giving these tent dwelling nomadics technology and developing their oil industry.
AQ is merely the latest in 1,400 year old tradition of islamo-facist movements which seek to destroy anything standing in their way of their message.