Israel Lost Its War. Will Assad's Enemies

After The Allied Victory Of 1918, At The End Of My Father's War, The Victors Divided Up The Lands Of Their Former Enemies. In The Space Of Just Seventeen Months, They Created The Borders Of Northern Ireland, Yugoslavia And Most Of The Middle East. And I Have Spent My Entire Career — In Belfast And Sarajevo, In Beirut And Baghdad — Watching The People Within Those Borders Burn.

If It Is Bin Laden, He's A Very Intelligent Guy. He's Been Planning His War For A Long Time. I Remember The Last Time I Met Him In 1997 In Afghanistan. And Bin Laden Said To Me "from This Mountain, Mr. Robert, Upon Which You Are Sitting, We Beat The Russian Army And Helped Break The Soviet Union. And I Pray To God That He Allows Us To Turn America Into A Shadow Of Itself." When I Saw The Pictures Of New York Without The World Trade Center, New York Looked Like A Shadow Of Itself.

Osama Bin Laden Is Not Well Read And He's Not Sophisticated, But He Will Have Worked Out Very Coldly What America Would Do In Response To This Attack 9/11. I'm Sure He Wanted America To Attack Afghanistan. Once You Do What Your Enemy Wants, You Are Walking Into A Trap, Whether You Think It's The Right Thing To Do Or Not.

At The End Of The Day, Osama Bin Laden's Interest Is Not Washington And New York, It's The Middle East. He Wants Saudi Arabia. He Wants To Get Rid Of The House Of Saud. There's A Great Deal Of Resentment, Even Inside The Royal Family, At The Continued Military Presence Of The United States There.

I've Lived In The Middle East For Twenty-five Years. I Know Exactly How These Issues Come Up. Even My Landlord, Who Is A Moderate Lebanese Guy, Says, "but Bin Laden Says What We Think." These People Believe That Osama Bin Laden Is Being Targeted Not Because Of The World Trade Center And Washington; They Are Not Convinced By The Evidence That Has Been Produced. They Believe He's Being Targeted Because He Tells The Truth.