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impeachment, he ordered American planes to attack a “terrorist target” in
Sudan that turned out to be a pharmaceutical plant, hence stopping produc-
tion of drugs that would have saved perhaps tens of thousands from malaria,
tuberculosis, and other diseases that were not usually fatal. In Iraq, Clinton
escalated the conflict, ordering “round the clock” bombings along with tight-
ening the sanctions, killing untold numbers. “We think the price is worth it,”
Secretary of State Madeline Albright believed.
More gravely, the aftermath of Iraq, along with the continued war in
Afghanistan, would give rise to a global network for terrorism. Terrorism was
not a new concept; it had always been a “weapon of the weak,” a tactic used
by groups that did not have the power to develop military means to fight.
Terrorism could include attacking civilians, attacking public places like hotels
or restaurants, assassinating political officials, or destroying large institutions.
Pakistan, where the anti-Russian mujahadeen had been training, became a
breeding ground for terror in the 1980s and one group in particular, al Qaeda,
would emerge as the most powerful and dangerous enemy of the U.S. in the
next decade. Ironically, many of the terrorists who would attack American
interests were initially sponsored and trained by the U.S. to fight against the
Soviet Union in Afghanistan, but then they became part of the Taliban, a fun-
damentalist Muslim group that defeated the Russians there, or of al Qaeda. Al
Qaeda, founded in large part with Osama bin Laden’s family money [they
were incredibly wealthy due to ownership in international construction com-
panies], was committed to spreading the most conservative forms of Islam,
with religious law and Muslim-based political institutions. As such, even
though they had been sponsored by the Americans, they were determined to
eliminate western, Capitalist, and Christian influences from their region and
gain control of their own societies and own economies.
The Gulf War and the American deployment to the region further moti-
vated al Qaeda. Osama bin Laden had offered to help the Saudi government
defend itself against Saddam in August 1990 but King Fahd instead opted for
the U.S.-led coalition to protect his country. Bin Laden, believing that the
presence of western troops in the holy lands of Mecca and Medina [the birth-
place of Islam] was a sacrilege, berated the Saudi government, and in turn had
his Saudi passport revoked and was forced into exile in Sudan for the next
several years until he was banished from there in 1996. Meanwhile, the Taliban
had conquered the Russians and so bin Laden found refuge in Afghanistan,