Religion
In reply to the discussion: How religion can drive someone to slaughter his fellow citizens – and believe they deserve it [View all]Albertoo
(2,016 posts)And the factual evidence that al Zawahiri explicitly claims to follow Said Qutb's teachings.
As for your claim about Osama, you appear to forget other goals stated by Osama:
1- the key one was Osama's obsession against the presence of infidels in Saudi Arabia
Never mind that US troops there were guests of the KSA regime, as a good radical Muslim, Osama had decided that Quranic purity demanded to not tolerate the mere presence of infidels. So much for even a token peaceful coexistence.
2- another big hope -as related after the events by witnesses- was his hope to draw the US into the ME to create animosity against the infidels. So, contrarily to your opinion, Osama was working to create a revenge motive.
These two points, plus the permanence of radical Islam's objective to subjugate the world, appear to me to put your revenge motive as a minor factor by comparison.