PennEd, let's put this all in perspective. Let's do that.
Osama Bin Laden, was formerly a member of a US-backed group called the Mujahideen. This group fought against the Russians in the Afghan-Soviet war. Bin Laden founded a mechanics company close to the end of the war, then helped form Al Qaeda, originally a group committed to backing the many Arab states involved in defensive wars against potential invaders by giving them military equipment and soldiers.
Not so long after, the US government gave Saddam Hussein permission to invade Kuwait to avenge a large-scale theft of Iraqi oil by the Kuwaitis. Notice that NONE of these wars are inherently America's business, but all the same, they are involved in all of them somehow. Anyway, Saddam had stationed forces on the Saudi border, and the Saudi royal family felt threatened by the whole scenario. Bin Laden offered to help defend Saudi Arabia, an offer which the Saudis refused after American coercion.
The Americans soon turned on their word, denounced Saddam's invasion of Kuwait and invaded Iraq, stationing a large number of troops near Medina and after several public statements by Bin Laden against the Saudis, he was banished from the country. This kind of thing also happened with the Iraqi Iranian war. America gave their blessing to Saddam, then used the death toll to further demonize him after 9/11.
Anyway, Bin Laden moved to Sudan, as the Sudanese chair for a British construction firm. He built roads, houses, and other infrastructures using his machinery and employees made up mostly of his comrades from the Mujahideen. He was reported to be a very kind, generous man and was extremely popular with the Sudanese people at the time.
Meanwhile in Egypt, Mubarak was being targeted by Egyptian extremists reportedly funded by the CIA to overthrow the man. Several members of this extremist group were former Mujahideen.
Now the Americans were instrumental in destabilization, political manoeuvring and backhanding at every turn, while Bin Laden was, at that time, certainly not the nutjob he is seen as today. He was a respected member of a British firm, ex-leader of a US-backed military that managed to fend off the Russians, and a man well liked by the people of the country he lived in.
It wasn't long after the end of the first Gulf War that the Americans pushed for Bin Laden's exile from Sudan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and such.
This back-handedness, use and discard, has been part of American military policy for decades. There isn't a country in the Middle East the US haven't been involved in. Iraq and Afghanistan, two countries where the US backed war, then declared war, pushed and pulled, destroyed and divided.
Of course, many people felt aggrieved about it.
A long ways down the line, on September 11th, 2001, a group of 19 extremist hijackers from a fairly small group of international terrorists crashed planes into two US buildings, horrifically killing 3000 civilians. The leader, reported by US media to be Bin Laden, was international enemy number 1.
The US responded to these terrorists, who had a leader banished in half the Arab countries who has inherently no nationality or royal right, by declaring war in Afghanistan. The invasion began by bombing water supplies, electrical grids, power stations, cutting food supplies. Even though the Afghan leaders denounced Bin Laden and ordered him to leave the country, Bush instigated a full-scale war on them, killing more civilians than militants.
By 2003 there are hundreds of thousands of civvy deaths (somehow justified by 3000??) and Bush then decides to declare war on Iraq and find Saddam's WMD's. We all know what happened there.
We're now in 2014, with close to a million civvy deaths, worldwide destabilization, American instigated revolutions in Egypt, Mubarak is dead, the same Egyptian terrorists the US were after years ago are now part of an anti-coup party, Gadaffi is dead too, US or US-linked companies own the majority of Iraqi oil, no WMD's were found, Bin Laden is dead and the US hit-list of terrorist targets is multiple times larger than it was at the start of it all. That list also includes women and children.
You tell me who the terrorist is.