Suicide Bombers

Interesting op-ed on suicide bombing in the Times. It is a pessimistic, even defeatist assessment. The methodological weakness of the underlying statistical analysis is discussed over at Volokh. The American Mind also comments here.

The author makes a point that is often over looked by many in the west.

Rather, what nearly all suicide terrorist campaigns have in common is a specific secular and strategic goal: to compel liberal democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that the terrorists consider to be their homeland. Religion is rarely the root cause, although it is often used as a tool by terrorist organizations in recruiting and in other efforts in service of the broader strategic objective.

Nearly all suicide terrorist attacks occur as part of organized campaigns, not as isolated or random incidents. Of the 188 separate attacks in the period I studied, 179 could have their roots traced to large, coherent political or military campaigns.

Suicide terrorist campaigns are directed toward a strategic objective.


This view is echoed by David Ignatius

This stark assessment makes clear that suicide bombings are part of a very deliberate strategy. They aren't driven by poverty, neglect, irrational fanaticism or the other factors Westerners often cite. They are motivated by a belief that killing Israelis will bring military victory.

All too often we think and speak of suicide bombers as individuals driven by despair to take action on their own initiative. But it appears that they are mere pawns of the Arafats and bin Ladens. The strategists of suicide terror are hardly leaders are heroic symbols of resistance. They are cowards who send other people's children to die while their own spawn are protected.