Over the past 80 years, Western governments and their allies have supported radical Islamist groups. However, this was not merely opportunism, a bad case of "my enemy's enemy is my friend." As part of this process, Western governments seriously denigrated popular secular and democratic movements. Indeed, from the founding of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1920s to Israel's role in the forging of Hamas in the 1980s, the explicit aim of Western support for radical Islamism was to isolate, weaken, and ultimately destroy popular political movements that very often were based on Western ideas of democracy and progress. Thus, many of these radical Islamist groups – the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, al-Qaeda, Hezbollah – have a built-in suspicion of and hostility toward secular democracy.

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/oneill.php?articleid=9615
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read the article. Its long but provides a good idea of how and why these radical islamists dominate the middle east today.

Great Find 500lb.

"What we have today is not a World War between a principled West and psychotic groups from "over there," but rather the messy residue of decades of Western meddling in the Middle East."

One of the most important statements in this article. It might be a little too late for the West to fix what they have created. The more they involve themselves now, the more Islamic radicals they are going to create. Look at Iraq.

I don't know enough about the origins of the MB to contribute anything but his description of the muj in Afghanistan are not correct. The muj were a construct of the pakistani isi. They were training and feeding them long before the US came along. The ISI have a long and complicated history with the muj. The ISI/Pakistan wanted Afghan as part of their strategic depth on the backside form the Soviet/India relationship of the 80's. The US's contribution pales beside that of the ISI and money from the gulf, both gov't and private.
The US's specific involvement with obl and zawhari is even less. He was a find of the SA gov't, largley supplied by the gulf.
That said we have been adept at creating some of our present 'problems'.

Googs,
1. Is there anything that radical muslims do that is actually their own fault?
and
2. Are there any bad things that happen in the world that are not the fault of the US?

You were, at one time, a good go-to person to talk about the Middle East. You're slowly becoming one of the predictables.

Googs,
1. Is there anything that radical muslims do that is actually their own fault?
and
2. Are there any bad things that happen in the world that are not the fault of the US?

You were, at one time, a good go-to person to talk about the Middle East. You're slowly becoming one of the predictables.

I'm not saying it's America's fault alone. It's just the way America and the West have decided to fix the situation. The Iraq War is a prime example of bad fixing. War isn't a tool to be used to fix situations like the one in Iraq. We, America and the West, have managed to create a dangerous Middle East. Like it or not, it's the truth.