Extraordinary Look at Terrorism

Lately, in addition to plowing through the usual management reading, I've been captivated by George Friedman's America's Secret War.

Friedman is the founder of Stratfor, a private intelligence company. His book gives one of the clearest descriptions of Al Qaeda political goals and its relationship to other terrorist groups.

An excerpt:

Al Qaeda was not motivated by hatred of the United States, American popular culture, or American democracy. Its focus, instead, was on the Islamic world and its governments. Al Qaeda viewed the United States as the main Christian global power. As such, it has assumed a position as guarantor of existing regimes in the Islamic world. Put differently, even if the United States wasn't directly responsible, it was viewed as the protector of these regimes by the Islamic masses.