Even as you righteously hate those men, you have to admire them for their genius (McMichael).” “Many regard the September 11, 2001 attack as the most important event in American history. It killed more people inside the U.S. boundaries than any other one-day event since the Pearl Harbor attack. Yet those who died in the horrific carnage in Manhattan, Washington, and Pennsylvania that Tuesday morning were only the most direct victims of the attack (911 Review).” There are many causes that affected all Americans that day. Some would say that a few of the 9-11 causes are: “The 9/11 attacks were the fruit of Bin Laden’s flawed strategic reasoning, US foreign policies in the Middle East, in particular its support of Israel, and Decline and stagnation in the middle east and the “humiliation” of the Islamic world (Prospect).”

Many Americans would gladly agree that all of 9-11 was caused by one man and his gang of followers: Osama bin Laden and his band of killers, Al-Qaeda. That the four planes, three of which crashed in to buildings that killed thousands. “Bin Laden’s total dominance of al Qaeda meant the organization was hostage to his strategic vision. His analysis of US foreign policy was based on the US withdrawal from Lebanon in 1983, after the attack on the barracks that killed 241 American servicemen, and from Somalia in 1993 after 18 US soldiers were killed in Mogadishu (Prospect).” “From these retreats, Bin Laden concluded that the US was a paper tiger, capable of withstanding only a few strikes before it would withdraw, leaving client regimes in the middle east vulnerable(Prospect).” “Although 9/11 was a tactical success for al Qaeda, it actually threatened the organization’s future (Prospect).” Even though we were attacked instead of the attacks pulling us apart, they brought us together as a whole.

Another theory that many believe that caused 9-11 is “Decline and stagnation in the middle east and the “humiliation” of the Islamic world (Prospect).” “Bernard Lewis is the best-known exponent of the idea that the Muslim world is in a crisis largely attributable to centuries of decline, symbolized by the fate of the once powerful Ottoman Empire and its ignominious carve-up by the British and French after the First World War. Lewis also argues that the problems of the Middle East were later compounded by the import of two western ideas—socialism and secular Arab nationalism (Prospect).” This causes many Middle Easterners to resent America, the country that pushes towards socialism. “Three weeks after 9/11, as the US began launching air strikes against Taliban positions, a video of Bin Laden sitting on a rocky outcrop was broadcast on Al-Jazeera. On the tape, Bin Laden said, “What America is tasting now is something insignificant compared to what we have tasted for scores of years. The Islamic world has tasted this humiliation and this degradation for 80 years… Neither America nor the people who live in it will dream of security before we live in it in Palestine, and not before the infidel armies leave the land of Muhammad.” So in his first statement following 9/11, Bin Laden emphasized the “humiliation” of the Muslim world and the negative effect of US policies in the Middle East. In this sense, Bin Laden seems to agree with Bernard Lewis. Indeed, Bin Laden often talks about the “humiliation” suffered by Muslims at the hands of the west. For Bin Laden, the 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement that carved up the Ottoman Empire between the French and British has the same resonance that the 1919 treaty of Versailles did for Hitler. It must be avenged and reversed (Prospect).” Made it look like the American people were to blame for the Middle East’s “humiliation.”

Some would say that a few of the 9-11 causes are: “The 9/11 attacks were the fruit of Bin Laden’s flawed strategic reasoning, US foreign policies in the Middle East, in particular its support of Israel, and Decline and stagnation in the middle east and the “humiliation” of the Islamic world (Prospect).” What many American’s and people all around the world can learn from this is that no matter what a country throws at us, America will always stick together and raise from the ashes. Instead of blaming the people who caused this by what they look like or by what religion, how about we go after true criminals: the men who plotted this and killed thousands.