Who exactly were you summarizing here ?
It seems quite possible that some sort of use of military force against Afghanistan was already in the making. The information from France makes it all the more credible.
I'm sure the US military were planning for stuff like this--just as they plan for an invasion of Cuba and N. Korea. And entities like the 'Eastern Alliance' seemed to have appeared after the US added water.
As for third options: the US had no Afghanistan policy up to 9-11 outside of the usual elements: minerals, dominant business interests (are we disputing Bush family priorities here?), containment of Iran, Russia, China, war game scenarios, etc.
That it's Saudi, Pakistan and Central Asia oil strategies have all bitten it in the ass is certainly something the Clintonites and Bushies DON'T want to talk about.
That intelligence and military allowed something like 9-11 to happen without even a hunch of what was going on is something ALL Americans ought to be talking about. So again the US military and intelligence shows its the world's best at projecting deadly force on a massive scale. But such abilitities-- the bragging rights of the world's only superpower-- couldn't save the dead of 9-11.
Charles Jannuzi