[Al-Qaeda is a Saudi proxy army. It was made up of mujahedeen which nobody disputes were Saudi proxies, and Bin Laden’s family is tied to the hip of the Saudi Royal Family. Then suddenly 9/11 happens and Al-Qaeda hates the Saudi government, despite being armed and funding to engage in advancing the same geo-strategic interests and receiving continuous support from the Saudi government.]
The 9/11 attacks were a supersized coup attempt against the Saudi royal family by bin Laden. The idea behind the attacks was that the US would invade Saudi Arabia and topple the al-Saud family, thereby uniting the Muslim world behind al Qaeda’s plan to make bin Laden the first Caliph since the Ottomans were removed from power by Kemal Ataturk. Assuming al Qaeda was able to eject the US from Saudi Arabia the way the Afghans ejected the Soviets, the bin Ladin family would graduate, from mere retainers to a royal family, to being the royal family.
In addition, Saudi Arabia also suffered a huge hit to its favorability rating among Americans in the wake of 9/11. It went from 47% favorable and 46% unfavorable in Feb 2001 to 29% favorable and 67% unfavorable in Feb 2019, almost 18 years after the 9/11 attacks. In a traditional Arab society where collective responsibility is pretty much a given, there’s no question that the bin Ladin family has a lot to answer for.
Look at what happened afterwards. Iraq was invaded, and the US was spending billions to reshape the Middle East. The plan failed because Iraq turned into a quagmire and killed American support for more countries to be invaded. Instead, no war with Iran happened and the power vacuum was filled by the Iranians.
If there’s anything to be learned by this, is that these interventions are doing nothing but bankrupting and weakening us.