Where does this come from? Is this your own thinking, simply? Do you read minds or have you found this message under a stone? You write as if this is some sort of unquestioned emprirical truth. Is it? Some people are impressed with your use of words, as the comments show. But frankly, what do you do?

1) You inject mystery into an ongoing search for the causes of violence in our world. Your words play right into the hands of real perpetrators. You make them appear elusive, and intangible. This is not appropriate, because there are real people with real intentions doing very specific things.

2) Your last paragraph is simply confusing. How did the message feed off the wars? Isn't the message of the wars rather an obvious expression of America's plan to spread its military influence around the world?

3) You write that terror acts are "symbolic statements of power directed at a carefully selected audience". Oh really – and do they just fall from the sky?There is mounting evidence that certain events, like 9/11, can be described in more precise terms, for example: false-flag operation.

4) You assume that al Qaeda attacked America. How do you know? Do you really believe in the official story? If al Qaeda is so elusive, how can you be sure enough to believe in your own words?

You nurture the impression that the enemy is terrorism, and that we can't do anything about it. You're wrong.

The only good thing about this article, which made me read it, is the quote by Abu Musab al-Suri, as this means that al Qaeda can be understood to be merely a phrase – an array of letters. Therefore, it can be used to disguise, to fake, and to deceive. This should encourage more people to call for more investigation, because "an idealogical nerve centre" is a bit too slippery to behold of.

Bin Laden didn't know who Bush was when bin laden declared a fatwa and holy war on America. Why don't you just admit that most muslims, even moderate muslims would like to see islam in every country . That's what this is all about. bin laden has called us all to convert to islam many times as well as zawahiri. This is not about the US foreign policy. This is about on religion wanting to force everyone throughout the world to become muslim. bin laden didn't even know who Bush was in 1993 when bin laden decided to attack the so-called infidels. We all know that most muslims agree with bin laden and want a caliphate established in America, so please stop trying to fool us. We know the truth now. Americans had to pay the price for ignorant racist people like bin laden. Stop balming Bush.

The scariest thing about al Qaeda – they are succeeding in uniting these extremist groups. The Egyptian Islamic Jihad is now Al Qaeda in Egypt. The extremist groups in Iraq, the Philippines, and Indonesia have also lined up behind bin Laden.

And the Bush administration thinks we are just fighting a rabble of uneducated fanatics. As Sun Tzu said 2500 years ago, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.”

Do you remember the US Patriot Act? Those who are not Al Qeada type of killing people, but just messengers, how will their civil rights & liberties be judged? What is this all about? There is distinction between those who are Muslim Americans and Al Qaeda. How will you clear up this misunderstanding?

The democrats had better start to realize we're at war with Islamic zealots. They're in it to win; we'd better be, too.

I'm well aware of the abundant opportunities here in the States, but who I am as a person doesn't stand or fall with those opportunities. If so, then the real lala land is investing yourself too much in your own country and culture.

I stand by my statements.

So how do you condone what the US is doing? We are currently doing the same thing but in an effort to get "the bad guys". So does blindly killing Muslim innocents in our effort make us any better than them?

Look, the more innocents we kill while trying to wipe out terrorism, the larger the movement against our government becomes. You can't stop that type of movement. You can slow that movement down but in the process you just create more people who get behind the movement. Our country has truly worked us into a corner that will take a very long time to get out of. Respecting other cultures would be a big step in the right direction.