What makes suicide bombers tick?

" The central fact is that overwhelmingly suicide-terrorist attacks are not driven by religion as much as they are by a clear strategic objective: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from the territory that the terrorists view as their homeland. From Lebanon to Sri Lanka to Chechnya to Kashmir to the West Bank, every major suicide-terrorists campaign-over 95 percent of all incidents-has had as it's central objective to compel a democratic state to withdraw"


Summation: It's the occupation, stupid!


From an American Conservative interview of Associate Professor Robert Pape of the U of Chicago, Author of "Dying to Win: The Logic of Suicide Terrorism"

We all need to feel empowered in our lives.
Wait till this phenomenon hits the good old US of A.

to blow up and kill innocent civilians.

Many of the 9-11 bombers were not filled with "hopelessness". Many were from fairly affluent background and were not exactly suffering. Yes, they were upset about political and religious issues, but that is no reason to kill and maim innocent people. Military targets are one thing, but civilian target are inexcusable

I realize there are root causes, and that there are two sides to every issue, but quit making excuses for these despicable people.

Examples:
- Timothy McVeigh
- Uni-bomber
- Eric Rudolph

All are examples of people who resort to terrorist acts because of the "hopelessness" of their particular cause.

Suicide bombers don't bother me. Anyone who wants to can strap a bomb to themselves and feel empowered.
When they choose to walk into a crowded market and kill women and children they become murderers.

If they want to oppose an occupation and are willing to die they would do a much better job if they picked up a rifle and attacked a military target. Or they can try and walk their bombs into military bases. Watch out for the snipers.

Nothing will make the people of this country run from voting democrat faster than seeing democrats condoning homicide bombings.

Well said!

It's loony leftism that's driving the American people away from teh Democratic Party.

Believe it or not, but not all of the World's probelms are America's fault.

it appears in the American Conservative magazine?

Interesting that a conservative magazine would publish that.

I do believe that occupations cause terrorism, but they do not warrant terrorist acts against innocent civilians.

civilians are warranted?

I was not referring to the article. My rant was still with regards to the people who blamed "hopelessness" as the primary reason. I guess I got off topic a little. Please refer to the other posts to see where I was coming from.

and highway bill getting me down!

You don't have a lot of practical, effective options to fight it. It is a bad tool that works.

1. Search\restrict travel of everyone -> The only way to be sure but that is a totalitarian government and it will inspire more resistance.
2. Search\restrict travel of some people (by ethnic group/race religion/nationality) -> You can't do that for long and still be a free people and you might get back to #1.
3. Respond with something unthinkably horrible -> They kill innocent people so we kill 20x as many innocent people of the same ethnic/national/racial/religious group.
4. Use law enforcement resources to stop it -> It is hard to stop someone that's willing to kill themselves. It is hard to arrest someone before they commit the crime and afterward you can't question the suspect. Bombs don't appear to be that hard to make.
5. Capitulate to their demands -> It rewards the tactic and promotes its future use.

The most palatable means of effectively defeating this without killing a lot of people on both sides is to understand the motivation and take it away without rewarding the killers. Shooting and arresting a lot of people when only a couple might be dangerous just makes more bombers. This might seem like a weak response but other things don't work that well either and at the end of the day you have to live with pissed off, desperate people (and I'm not just talking about bombers) or kill all of them. "All of them" means every potential bomber and everyone that might become a potential bomber in response to the purge.

There is also a problem with the "every potential bomber" criteria. Some bombers are motivated by non-political outside influences like the "you will strap on this bomb or I will have your entire family raped, tortured, and killed" scenario.

Conservatives make a lot of headway on this issue like they do on so many others with tough talk and occasionally tough action that accomplishes nothing or makes the problem worse. They might even make a point but if the goal is less bombings in the long run then they are making a point while failing to accomplish their goal.

If I had a magic wand that would stop this and severely punish the bombers then I would use it as I'm sure you would but that doesn't work.

to bomb the shit out of an arab country and torture their people and not expect to create a bigger version of the Israel/Palestine problem.

And for all the pro-war right-wing apologists: predicting something and explaining why it happens is not the same as excusing it.

In the same way if some-one burns down an arsonist's family's house in retaliation that is not excusable. But it's predictable and preventable (i.e. if the arsonist didn't commit his crimes in the first place then there would be no retaliation).

brainwashed by a religious cult