9-11, give me a break.

[Mudhammam]

And yet it's a stupid and simplistic one. It prevents looking at the motifs and taking the attackers for fools instead of acknowledging the fact that they have their own kind of reasoning and most of all a strategy. What always went under and what I always pointed out when one of these simplistic arguments came up even back then was Massoud. Massoud had the highest popularity among the Afghani warlords opposing the Taliban. He was murdered, was it two or three days before 9/11. They wanted him out of the way, since they were expecting an imminent attack on Afghani soil. That's not a foolish approach. That's a strategy if there ever was one.

A stupid and simplistic response is one that ignores what the Islamists actually claim, how they act upon the statements they make, and blames everything on U.S. foreign policy or Israel, rather than acknowledge that there are a plethora of reasons including legitimate grievances, some that are purely geo-political, others that are purely theological, and of course ones that are a combination of both.  One only has to read the Islamic State's own propaganda, in the article they published to garner further support from English-speaking jihadists, "Why We Hate You and Why We Fight You", to see how "stupid and simplistic" it is to say "they fight us because they hate our way of life, including our freedoms."

1.  We hate you, first and foremost, because you are disbelievers... 2.  We hate you because your secular, liberal societies permit the very things that Allah has prohibited while banning many of the things He has permitted... 3.  In the case of the atheist fringe, we hate you and wage war against you because you disbelieve in the existence of your Lord and Creator...  4. We hate you for your crimes against Islam and wage war against you to punish you for your transgressions against our religion...  5.  We hate you for your crimes against the Muslims; your drones and fighter jets bomb, kill, and maim our people around the world, and your puppets in the usurped lands of the Muslims oppress, torture, and wage war against anyone who calls to the truth... 6.  We hate you for invading our lands and fight you to repel you and drive you out.  

It's not actually until reason #5, per ISIS, that you find justification, in their minds, according to them, that you can place outside of the rationale that you call "stupid and simplistic."  So, if it is stupid and simplistic, they certainly don't view it that way.

It kind of feels like I had just one of these moments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpIYz8tfGjY