Which was why it was widely considered a dumb move on the part of Bin Laden. It attracted all sorts of unwanted attention, that ultimately led to the the core group losing all relevance. The other al-Qaeda franchises might be doing well, but the people who pulled off 9/11 (and their successors) have virtually no influence, on top of being hunted by the US.

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SwellJoe 33 minutes ago | parent [-]

I didn't say anything about what al-Qaeda wanted. I said, "Bin Laden wanted to destroy America". Am I wrong for believing the evidence of his actions supports that assertion?

	▲	gruez 14 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		>I didn't say anything about what al-Qaeda wanted Given that Bin Laden is al-Qaeda's leader, it's approximately correct to treat them as the same entity, unless you're arguing that there's some factional struggle inside al-Qaeda. >I said, "Bin Laden wanted to destroy America". Am I wrong for believing the evidence of his actions supports that assertion? No, because the "destroy America" objective came afterwards, after his most bombastic attack, so there's a texas sharpshooter fallacy going on, where you're redefining your conditions for success. It's like putin invading ukraine claiming to want to conquer the entirety of it, then after years of stalemate pivoting and claiming all he wanted to do was capture donbas.