It [9/11 Event] Was Aimed At Symbols:

All Knowledge That Is About Human Society, And Not About The Natural World, Is Historical Knowledge, And Therefore Rests Upon Judgment And Interpretation. This Is Not To Say That Facts Or Data Are Nonexistent, But That Facts Get Their Importance From What Is Made Of Them In Interpretation… For Interpretations Depend Very Much On Who The Interpreter Is, Who He Or She Is Addressing, What His Or Her Purpose Is, At What Historical Moment The Interpretation Takes Place.

The Arab Rulers Are Basically Unpopular. They Are Supported By The United States Against The Wishes Of Their People. In All Of This Rather Heady Mixture Of Violence And Policies That Are Remarkably Unpopular Right Down To The Last Iota, It's Not Hard For Demagogues, Especially People Who Claim To Speak In The Name Of Religion, In This Case Islam, To Raise A Crusade Against The United States And Say That We Must Somehow Bring America Down.

Every Empire, However, Tells Itself And The World That It Is Unlike All Other Empires, That Its Mission Is Not To Plunder And Control But To Educate And Liberate.

...it Is Sensible To Begin By Asking The Beginning Questions, Why Imagine Power In The First Place, And What Is The Relationship Between One's Motive For Imagining Power And The Image One Ends Up With.

Appeals To The Past Are Among The Commonest Of Strategies In Interpretations Of The Present.