Table of Contents

1. What Americans view 1

1. as bin Laden's megalomania - 1
2. the conviction 1
3. that he and a relatively small band of followers can defeat a superpower – 1
4. has its origins in the humbling of the Soviet superpower in the mountains of Afghanistan. 1

2. In a CNN interview in 1997 1

3. As examples of alleged American cowardice: 1

4. In a video 1

5. Destroyer had 1

1. What Americans view1

1. as bin Laden's megalomania2 -

2. the conviction

3. that he and a relatively small band of followers can defeat a superpower –

4. has its origins in the humbling of the Soviet superpower in the mountains of Afghanistan.

2. In a CNN interview in 19973

a. he said that "the myth of the superpower was destroyed not only in my mind but also in the minds of all Muslims" as a
result of the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan at the hands of mujaheddin.

b. Bin Laden's contempt

c. for America seems even greater than his contempt for the Soviet Union. "The Russian soldier is more courageous and
patient than the U.S. soldier," he told the London-based Arab newspaper, al-Quds al-Arabi, in 1996.
d. "Our battle with the United States is easy compared with the battles in which we engaged in Afghanistan."

3. As examples of alleged American cowardice:

a. The withdrawal from Lebanon
after the 1983 truck bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut

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 b. The withdrawal from Somalia
after the 1993 killings of U.S. servicemen in Mogadishu
Bin Laden also has paid a great deal of attention to the symbolism of his targets4

4. In a video
that circulated widely in the Arab world earlier this year, he bragged of the attack on the USS Cole by a boat filled with
explosives in Aden harbor in October 2000

5. Destroyer had
the "illusion she could destroy anything," but was itself destroyed by a tiny boat, bin Laden said.

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