>>2847264Bin Laden's goal was to frighten / shock the U.S. into withdrawing from the Middle East, which was informed by previous experiences including the embassy barracks bombing in Lebanon and the U.S. withdrawal from Somalia. He thought the U.S. was a decadent paper tiger and the whole thing of drawing the Americans in, exhausting the empire etc. were post-hoc explanations after the U.S. did the opposite of what he expected. He still saw 9/11 as a success though as it made him the undisputed leader of the global jihadi movement.
I think it's also possible he got played, but more in the sense that others found out about it and decided to either let it happen or facilitate it. It could include Israel, but also Saudi and U.S. intelligence. Or maybe the latter two and not Israel. It's also possible none of them (including Bin Laden) expected the towers to actually collapse like that. There were apparently other Al Qaeda guys who thought the whole thing was fishy.
>>2847280Yeah and they remain in the reserves (subject to regular call-ups, trainings) into their 40s.