I didn’t use word “only”, the word was “simple”, which is not synonymous with “only”, so throw away your dictionary and buy a better one.
Re. the “lack of means” argument, it is fairly easy to massacre people on a shoestring, as ObL showed us on 9-11, which, come to think of it, was perfectly legitimate too. He gave us three years advance warning that he is in war with us and how he is going to fight us (by killing all of us). It was not his fault we refused to take him seriously.