It's not a war of ideas, meaning our political concepts versus their religious fanaticism, so if any of you want to embrace the straw-man logic that religion drives suicide bombers, be my guest.
But, frankly, Pape's research proves nothing of importance, other than to perhaps disabuse people of the role of religion in anyone's life—much less death. Religion is never the reason, only the rationale.
What the hell is Barnett babbling about? We have ideas, but they don't? Hello, has he ever heard of Sayd Qutb? They have ideas. They may be fanatical, but they include an explanation for everything, and are very much driving this conflict. To claim they don't have ideas is absurd, as absurd as Pape, who has decided that "occupation" and not religion drives suicide bombing, without bothering to explain why all occupied but non Muslim people (with the sole exceptions of the Tamils) have never gone in for suicide bombing. Tibetan suidice bombers? Don't think so. And many Muslim groups are picking out non-occupying non-Muslim victims - look at how many times Pakistani Christians have been bombed. Are they occupying anybody? Hello, do you think you might be missing an ideological component somewhere? What a maroon. |
