I feel I should note once again that what Bin Laden et al wanted to accomplish with 9/11 was to provoke an armed response from the West, so as to fuel the rise of jihadism. Seriously, it was like he was waving a big red flag and the Bush Administration was a particularly stupid bull.
This is something that's been driving me absolutely insane since the occupation began. Two things, actually -- the "flypaper" argument, and what Bin Laden wanted to accomplish with 9/11.
The "flypaper" argument, or "we fight them there so we don't have to fight them here," is easily the stupidest argument I've never heard. Even if we were fighting a regular army (which, as the administration and their propagandist puppets constantly like to remind us, we are not), who ever heard of an army that couldn't spare just a few guys to sneak into enemy territory for some special attack mission? It's absolutely idiotic to think that because our army is in Iraq that suddenly everyone planning an attack somewhere else, likely with the cell already set up and plans in motion, is going to drop everything and run to Iraq to get shot by US guns, tanks, bombs and missiles.
And secondly, what Bin Laden wanted. As Theo pointed out, it seems most likely that what Bin Laden wanted was to provoke an armed response in the Middle East by the US. Anybody with even a modicum of intelligence can tell you that if your enemy wants something, the last thing in the entire world you should ever do is to give it to them. READ FUCKING SUN TZU! Seriously? Sun Tzu would take one look at our current situation, shake his head, and tell us we're fucked.