>>Nor should I have to remind you of al-Qaeda's grand dream of a Wahabbi
Islamic state that does battle with the decadent West.<<
The Taliban of Afghanistan could be judged as fellow extremists, but they are Deobandi, not Wahabbi. Nor is the supposed Wahabbi influence among the Afghan Arabs very well documented or understood. In fact, since 9-11 we seem to have learned nothing at all about them, though I suppose US bombs have killed tens of thousands of them by now.
It might well be the case that both movements in the Afghan context were hijacked by a couple of amoral gangsters--namely, OBL and the Mullah Omar.
Suicide cults seeking perpetual war, btw, seem a worse way to propagate a religion or existence in a New Jerusalem on earth than does Shaker celibacy.
What strikes me most about the profile of the perps of 9-11 is that they presented a 'pro-west' ME (elite S.A., Egypt ) , military-like profile (one wonders if they showed military orders cut in Jeddah or Egypt on arrival for 'training' in the US) and that their largely self-contained , need-to-know network and handlers (maybe one per team?) must have linked the ME with Western Europe to the US.
The links to Afghanistan are as tenuous as Pres. Bush's developing concept of democracy (i.e., politics should be left out of the conduct of a war).
Moving to a different holy land: I'm not sure whether a rock-sure belief in an afterlife inspires the Palestinians to take on tanks and helicopter gunships in the streets, but anger and the desire for revenge sure do.
Charles Jannuzi