The Logic of Suicide Terrorism

[cquark]

From an interview with Robert Paper in American Conservative about his new book Dying to Win: The Logic of Suicide Terrorism we learn about some of the real causes of suicide bombings from a man who's studied all of these attacks since 1980.

It turns out that the largest source of suicide bombings isn't Islamic:

Islamic fundamentalism is not as closely associated with suicide terrorism as many people think. The world leader in suicide terrorism is a group that you may not be familiar with: the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka.

This is a Marxist group, a completely secular group that draws from the Hindu families of the Tamil regions of the country.

If the source isn't fundamentalism, what is it?

TAC: So if Islamic fundamentalism is not necessarily a key variable behind these groups, what is?

RP: 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-terrorist campaign?over 95 percent of all the incidents?has had as its central objective to compel a democratic state to withdraw.
...
TAC: If you were to break down causal factors, how much weight would you put on a cultural rejection of the West and how much weight on the presence of American troops on Muslim territory?

RP: The evidence shows that the presence of American troops is clearly the pivotal factor driving suicide terrorism.

If Islamic fundamentalism were the pivotal factor, then we should see some of the largest Islamic fundamentalist countries in the world, like Iran, which has 70 million people?three times the population of Iraq and three times the population of Saudi Arabia?with some of the most active groups in suicide terrorism against the United States. However, there has never been an al-Qaeda suicide terrorist from Iran, and we have no evidence that there are any suicide terrorists in Iraq from Iran.

Sudan is a country of 21 million people. Its government is extremely Islamic fundamentalist. The ideology of Sudan was so congenial to Osama bin Laden that he spent three years in Sudan in the 1990s. Yet there has never been an al-Qaeda suicide terrorist from Sudan.

I have the first complete set of data on every al-Qaeda suicide terrorist from 1995 to early 2004, and they are not from some of the largest Islamic fundamentalist countries in the world. Two thirds are from the countries where the United States has stationed heavy combat troops since 1990.

Another point in this regard is Iraq itself. Before our invasion, Iraq never had a suicide-terrorist attack in its history. Never. Since our invasion, suicide terrorism has been escalating rapidly with 20 attacks in 2003, 48 in 2004, and over 50 in just the first five months of 2005. Every year that the United States has stationed 150,000 combat troops in Iraq, suicide terrorism has doubled.

He looks like he's really done his research, with his book being based on a database of every suicide bombing from 1980-2004. I'm definitely going to have to read this one.

 

[mOeeOm]

Wait....this wasn't obvious? :S

 

[irwincur]

RP: The evidence shows that the presence of American troops is clearly the pivotal factor driving suicide terrorism.

Yes, that makes sense, since in his earlier statements he discusses all kinds of suicide attacks that were NOT triggered by the presence of American troops.

I am just asking for a touch of consistancy here.

If his opening statement was correct, it would be more correct to say, the trigger is defiance of the current order.

Before our invasion, Iraq never had a suicide-terrorist attack in its history. Never.

Oh, really. Saddam used to be part of the break away Bathist movement. They were some of the first people in the Middle East to employ suicide bombers as weapons. They also did other terroristy things like gun down civilians, detonate car bombs, etc...

Furthermore, he went on to murder close to 1,000,000 people for little or no reason.

Looks to me like there are bigger fish to fry in the world other than suicide bombers.

 

[cquark]

Originally posted by: irwincur

RP: The evidence shows that the presence of American troops is clearly the pivotal factor driving suicide terrorism.

Yes, that makes sense, since in his earlier statements he discusses all kinds of suicide attacks that were NOT triggered by the presence of American troops.

I am just asking for a touch of consistancy here.

Then why aren't you treating his statement consistently? You snipped the question to which that statement was an answer to:

TAC: If you were to break down causal factors, how much weight would you put on a cultural rejection of the West and how much weight on the presence of American troops on Muslim territory?

Here he's answering an either/or question, which focuses on American issues. Earlier in the interview he's answering questions that address the global context of suicide bombing. He is being consistent. You're just ignoring the context.

Oh, really. Saddam used to be part of the break away Bathist movement. They were some of the first people in the Middle East to employ suicide bombers as weapons.

Do you have a cite for this?

Looks to me like there are bigger fish to fry in the world other than suicide bombers.

There may be, but that's what his book was about and so that's what the interview discussed and thus it's what this thread is discussing. There are plenty of other threads for other topics or you can create your own if you want "bigger fish."

 

[mOeeOm]

Do you have a cite for this?

www.foxnews.com

 

[shira]

Repost:

Interview with Pape