Al-Qaeda's opportunity to hurt the US

By Michael Scheuer

When Osama bin Laden declared war on the United States in al-Qaeda's name in the late summer of 1996, he outlined ambitious worldwide Islamist goals but noted that al-Qaeda could not accomplish them on its own.

He said that al-Qaeda could, at best, serve as the vanguard that would attack the United States, assist Muslim insurgencies around the world and generally try to incite Muslims to join the jihad against the United States, Israel and the police states that govern much of the Arab and Muslim world.