A Matter Of Motive

With the four year anniversary of September 11th still fresh, many of those conspiracy theorists (which I blogged about here) have been plugging away to get their message out. Commercials have been rampant on many networks claiming that the Twin Towers were an "inside job" - explosives were placed there to ensure the buildings collapsed.

Aside from the logical problems I have with their theories, one remains that I have yet to see addressed by their paranoia. Motive.

These people proclaim that the Bush administration brought down the Towers. They made sure that not only WTC 1 and 2 collapsed, but that WTC 7 was brought down as well.

Why?

Was it the Roosevelt Syndrome? Do they figure that Bush brought them down so as to give the United States an excuse to invade the Middle East in search of conquest and oil? If so, why bring down the buildings? Would the invasion of Afghanistan been avoided had the Towers stood? Do they figure that the catalyst in all this is the fact that New York City's skyline has changed?

A date many of these conspiracy mongers seem to forget is February 26th, 1993 - the first attack on the World Trade Center. After being captured, the man held responsible for that attack, Ramzi Yousef, made a statement to the FBI as he was being flown by helicopter over the still standing Twin Towers:

Well next time I'll have more money, I'll come back and I'll bring those towers down.

Are we to believe these people just... gave up? That it's all one enormous coincidence that known terrorists - ones linked to the same organization Yousef was - were captured on video boarding the very planes that were flown into these buildings? Do these people expect us to ignore Yousef's threat and instead shift our focus and blame on the administration?

Are they in fact that retarded?

The fact is that the Twin Towers were targeted unsuccessfully in 1993, and in 2001, Al-Qaeda returned to finish what it had started.

Their motive?

To kill Americans.