He argues we should understand not only Afghanistan, Iraq, global warming, and poverty and hunger in Africa — but also the fact that so many Americans are "reeling...under the burden of interest-related debts, insane taxes, and real-estate mortgages" — as "one side of the grim face of the global system.”

Osama’s revolution used to be about the outrage of infidel troops on holy land in Saudi Arabia — not the pains of over-extending for beach houses, wasn't it.

The fact that the madrassahs, or Islamic schools, that al-Qaeda supports prepare young men for nothing but martyrdom — teaching them no languages but Arabic, no history, no law, no management skills or economics, and certainly no sciences, engineering, or mathematics — may not be an accident.

Young men who can fend for themselves and support families will not die for the glory of a leader who would have denied them independence.