Oh, but we did do something about the embassy bombings, don't you remember? We fired some cruise missiles into Afghanistan and blew up an aspirin factory in the Sudan. I'm surprised you don't remember? It was in all the papers.

Cynacism aside, I can see how bin Laden probably believed that we wouldn't do much after the Sept 11 attacks. After the 1993 WTC bombing, we did arrest and try a small number of people but we never went after those who made the attack possible. After the embassy bombings, we just fired a few cruise missiles. After the USS Cole, we didn't do anything at all. He probably believed we'd just fire a few more cruise missiles and declare victory like we did before. IMO, he miscalculated.