Why did Osama bin Laden choose to become a terrorist?

He didn't. You have to remember that the term “terrorist” is a title we place upon people who commit acts of “terror” on us. As the old expression goes, “one's man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter”. To Osama, WE would have been the terrorists. To answer this question we partly have to outline what a terrorist is. read more

Osama bin Laden did not choose to become a terrorist. To choose means he made a conscious decision. Osama bin Laden became a terrorist when Western persons labeled him a terrorist. Until this time ‘OBL’ was taking the only course of action that he saw was possible. Similar to a suicide victim. read more

Bin Laden fits squarely in thedefinition, since he is (1) a person who (2) used violent acts suchas World Trade Center Attacks in 1993 and 2001 (3) against civilianpopulations - in those cases, the civilian population of the USA,(4) in order to provoke fear (5) so that Americans would rethinktheir position on Middle East politics (6) and change the USForeign policy to be more along the lines of what bin Laden wasadvocating. This is why he is clearly a terrorist. read more