Missed Opportunities

In Michael Schuerer's book March Toward Hell, the author traces the origin and rise of Islamism and it's penchant for violence.
Schuerer writes that the first modern event that began the conflict we found ourselves in was the 1973 oil embargo and our support of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. By failing to find an alternative to our dependence on foreign oil and our blind allegiance to a nation that stirs the hatred of Muslims world wide, we began to link ourselves to a violent future.
In 1982 Hezbollah arose in Lebanon and began opening training camps everywhere. The U.S. knew about these camps but did nothing.
In 1990 the King of Saudi Arabia made the monumental decision to allow western troops on Muslim soil and we haven't left since.
In the mid 90s, the Balkan war raged and Muslims depicted themselves as innocent victims.  Eager to castigate Slobodan Milosevic as the reincarnation of Hitler, the West approved of the publication of Muslim victimhood.
During this time President Clinton had 10 chances to kill Osama bin Laden, but failed to act. Why he didn't move will never be known because his National Security Advisor, Sandy Berger, stole the records from federal files.
In 1993, Al Qaeda operative Ramsi Youssef set a truck bomb off at the World Trade Center. Clinton threatened prosecution and Al Qaeda rolled on the floor laughing. A few years later, Al Qaeda tried to kill Bush 1 but the plot was uncovered.  Clinton shrugged and Islamists were emboldened. The bombing of the USS Cole only further justified the Muslim belief that America was weak.
After 9/11, Bush prematurely poured American troops into Iraq, fueling the belief amongst Muslims that the West was on a crusade and vindicating the numerous claims of bin Laden.

Apart from Schuerer's narrative, I would add the following.
Obama came to office thanks to war weariness and a crushed economy.  One of his first acts was to go to Egypt and present a speech in which he apologized for America's crimes. Muslims only respect strength,  which is why they will never accept democracy,  so when Obama ended his apologia Muslims worldwide saw America, the little Satan, as weak and ripe for the killing stroke.
Obama's eagerness to withdraw US troops from Iraq (which he did briefly), from Afghanistan  (which he did not), and to close Gitmo (which he hasn't) reinforced the image of a "leader" in love with appeasement.
In 2012, on the anniversary of 9/11, the American embassy in Libya was hit by a coordinated attack that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,  UN Ambassador Susan Rice, and the President credited to an anti-Muslim video.  Once again,  aggression was shrugged off while Americans died.
The greatest bout of delusion however,  was the West's response to what it termed 'The Arab Spring', but what really was an Islamic Trojan horse using democratic protests to put themselves in power.  This single event will go down in history as the main cause of WW3.