“The August 7, 1998, bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania–bin Laden called them the ‘two mighty smashes’–were the first major effort to lure Washington into sending forces to Afghanistan. A year earlier [on August 7, 1997] bin Laden had begun the campaign by ridiculing U.S. attempts to capture him, saying that the Americans were ‘cowards and cannot confront me. If they even think of confronting me, I will teach them a lesson similar to the lesson they were taught in Somalia a few years ago.’ “
– Michael Scheuer, Osama Bin Laden, Pages 117-118