<<But the other thing that I thought about is what effect suicide bombers have on the suicide rate. That is, are the suicide bombers primarily people who would have quietly slit their wrists in the absence of the religious and financial incentives?>>
I've read in more than one place that the suicide bombers are not depressed people-- what they are is zealots. They think they're going straight to paradise, which is a most delightful place. Death will be painless (after the first drop of blood). They know they will be heroes and their families will become rich and will be very proud of them. The happy-looking martyr's mother in the chilling and pathetic photograph that accompanied the Lelyveld piece says, "I hope my other children do the same." (Her remaining sons don't look any too happy, unsurprisingly.) (If she gets her heart's desire, she will be rich as Croesus, and a hero-Mom.)
Here's a paragraph from the article I posted:
My last conversation in Tel Aviv, in a corner of a cavernous hotel lobby, was with a security official who can't be otherwise identified. How, I asked, could the Americans fight terrorism without creating a whole generation of new suicide bombers? ''You can't,'' he said pleasantly, speaking from the Israeli experience. ''You all the time create new generations. These days they don't have any problem to recruit suicides. For every suicide they want, they have 5, 7, 10 volunteers!''
nytimes.com
The Taliban are graduates of the Madrassahs. Jihad is taught there as a religious requirement, and the only reading matter these boys have is the Holy Koran. They believe. |
