"where the Al Qeda strongholds and support channels really are; I don't know the answer, though. Do you?"

Ummm....in Washington D.C.?

My point being, without the last 50 years of outrageous American interference in the lives of people in the Middle East, without the provocations, coups, betrayals, and wars perpetrated by the USA upon Muslim populations in the Middle East, without the CIA's messing around and gathering together in the 80's the most extreme Muslim fanatics they could find and funding and arming them to kill Russians in Afghanistan...

...there would be no Al Queda. There would be no reason for any Al Queda.