Precisely. What Carol said.

It is because "the CIA is an agency of the US government which carries out tasks assigned to it by the National Command Authority" that the CIA commits the very actions to which Muslims object so strenuously, and that is why those actions have caused Islamic fighters to retaliate against the USA in various ways.

Mossad, likewise, acts on behalf of the government of Israel, and arouses the same sort of anger in Muslim populations.

From those angry populations come individuals who decide on their own to take some sort of violent retaliatory action. If so, they represent themselves and many people who agree with them, but they do not represent any government. Such are the members of Al Qaeda. They represent themselves and some very aggravated Muslims who agree with them, but they do not represent a government or a nation.

The USA response to 911 didn't make sense. It was a criminal act, not an act of war by a sovereign nation or the armed forces of a nation. As such, it should have been dealt with as an international police matter...not a war. The invasion of Afghanistan was a completely illogical and ineffective way to react to a criminal attack by a few Egyptians and Saudis under the alleged control of someone hiding out in some camp somewhere in the mountains of Afghanistan.

It was kind of like Russia going and bombing the hell out of Los Angeles because nine crazy guys from Kentucky and Alberta did a terrorist attack on Vladivostok...and they were rumoured to have received their orders from Kevin Costner who was hiding out in Los Angeles.

Idiotic.

But this time you had a "Pearl Harbour" event...yet no Japanese Navy, no Japanese Army or Air Force, and no Japan to retaliate against. Still, you had an infuriated and traumatized American public who wanted someone to pay for 911. So what did the US military do? Well, they did the obvious foolish thing...they went off to pulverize a wretchedly poor Muslim country that did NOT plan or cause 911, a country with a bunch of poorly-educated and naive Islamic fundamentalists in power who were complete fools when it came to presenting themselves to the world...a PR disaster in fact. Nobody in the world even recognized them as a legitimate government except for Pakistan and 2 other Muslim nations. They made a perfect punching bag for an angry America...and who would object? The Russians likewise detested them.

So Afghanistan and the Taliban got pulverized. And that made angry Americans feel better. (whoopee) It did absolutely nothing to reduce the risk of further Muslim terrorist attacks nor did it do anything to improve the security of the USA or anyone else's security. It was a completely inappropriate reaction to the events on 911. In time it has grown into a war that can't be won. Well, the Russians know all about that already...they had their turn in the 80s.