bin Laden's puppets

Listening to U.S. presidential candidate John McCain reminds me once again how remarkably successful al-Qaeda was with their bombings of 9/11. Far be it from me to try to get into the heads of people who fly planes into tall buildings, but I suspect their first goal was to trigger a war between Islam and the West. And secondly, to undermine Western values. They succeeded at both, but only because the Bush administration played beautifully into their hands. They wanted a war, Bush gave them one, and now the U.S. is bogged down in it and has reinvigorated al-Qaeda in the bargain. As for undermining Western values, the Americans performed on cue here as well, with everything from torturing foreigners to massive spying on their own people.

Furthermore, the U.S. and its allies have created over four million refugees in Iraq. It takes little imagination to realize that included among those millions are tens of thousands of unemployed, uneducated and angry young men -- a host of potential recruits for the next generation of jihadists.

Now we have McCain, possibly the next president, insisting if elected he will carry on the war for 100 years if necessary. Bin Laden's eyes must light up like candles when he hears that. Who would have thought a guy hiding in a cave in Pakistan or wherever would have the leaders of the world's most powerful nation dancing at his fingertips?