Religion, suicide terrorism link disputed in book

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N03257406.htm

WASHINGTON, June 3 (Reuters) - A surge in suicide attacks in Iraq and elsewhere around the world is a response to territorial occupation and has no direct link with Islamic fundamentalism, according to the author of a new book who has created a database of such bombings over the past 25 years.

Robert Pape, associate professor of political science at the University of Chicago, said most suicide terrorists were well-integrated and productive members of their communities from working-class or middle-class backgrounds.

"Technicians, waitresses, security guards, ambulance drivers, paramedics ... few are criminals. Most are volunteers whose first act of violence is their very own suicide attack," Pape told Reuters in an interview.

A broad misunderstanding of the issue, he said, is taking the U.S.-led war on terrorism in the wrong direction and could in fact be fueling an increase in suicide terrorism.

Pape has created what he calls the first comprehensive database on every suicide terrorist attack in the world since 1980, using Arabic, Hebrew, Tamil and Russian-language sources.

Its the occupation. Who would have thought?

[snooper2]

1. I think this assumption is crap...

there has to be a religous link...

No sane person would kill themselves in one attack.

I would want to be able to attack, attack and attack, day after day after day, until the enemy killed me. I would be a RPG pro baby...

Of course, I don't believe I am going to some magical place in the sky where Gawd will take care of me.

[uppityperson]

2. Is dying now the worst thing that could happen to you?

I think this is something some people don't understand about suicide bombers in comparing them to themselves. Dying right now is not necessarily the worst thing that could happen. Dying for the right cause is not so scary and a good thing. Having your death be meaningless is wrong. And just dying isn't so bad, especially if it means something.

[NNN0LHI]

3. Wrong assumptions can be the most difficult for many

American soldiers have been sent on missions that were considered "suicide missions" during wartime. They were ordered on missions where there was little chance of returning. And they still went. And they did not go for God. Here is a more recent example of almost doing this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2222205.stm

US considered 'suicide jet missions'

>>>US Air Force commanders considered crashing fighter jets into hijacked planes on 11 September because of a lack of armed planes, a BBC investigation reveals.

In the immediate aftermath of the terror attacks US fighter planes took to the skies to defend America from any further attacks.

"Some of them would have just gotten in the air possibly without any armament onboard.

"If you had to stop an aircraft sometimes the only way to stop an aircraft is with your own aircraft if you don't have any weapons.

"It was very possible that they {the pilots} would have been asked to give their lives themselves to try to prevent further attacks if need be."<<<

There is no doubt in my mind that if these pilots had been ordered to crash their planes into another plane most of them would have done it without hesitation. And they wouldn't have been thinking about any God either. What do you think?

Don