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.
That's correct, when considering the means. The culture of "Martydom" has existed for centuries, and the most recent flavor of this has been heavily used by the Qubtists (upon which most of the Islamo-Fascist ideology is based).
But Pape totally glosses over the inspiration of the Japanese Kamikazes, probably because Japanese suicide "jockeys" only focused upon attacking other warriors. To waste one's life killing unarmed civilians would have meant disgrace.
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.
This doesn't seem to explain why so many Shi'as, as well as their religious mosques, have been targeted.
Nor does it explain why so many thousands of Iraqis have died at the hands of suicide bombers. After all, IT'S THEIR "HOMELAND" TOO!! And since they represent a duly elected government, it is EVEN MORE their homeland than it is of the foreigners who are recruited to be "brides and grooms" for suicide attacks.
He should adjust his interpretation to DEMOCRACY, and not merely foreign democracies with troops in said country.
Thus, the logic follows that suicide bombings are used as a weapon AGAINST DEMOCRATIC CHANGE AND REFORM, and the formation of legitimate governments.
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.
Al Qai'da leadership, including the heir apparent to Bin Laden, his son Sa'ad, have been "interned" in Iran for years. Sa'ad was recently reported to have been "released" by Iran so he could travel to Lebanon and operate there.
IRAN has formed battalions of suicide bombers to strike at British and American targets if the nation’s nuclear sites are attacked. According to Iranian officials, 40,000 trained suicide bombers are ready for action.
The main force, named the Special Unit of Martyr Seekers in the Revolutionary Guards, was first seen last month when members marched in a military parade, dressed in olive-green uniforms with explosive packs around their waists and detonators held high.
Dr Hassan Abbasi, head of the Centre for Doctrinal Strategic Studies in the Revolutionary Guards, said in a speech that 29 western targets had been identified: “We are ready to attack American and British sensitive points if they attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.” He added that some of them were “quite close” to the Iranian border in Iraq.
timesonline.co.uk
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.
And like I previously stated, the majority of these attacks have been committed against IRAQIS, primarily Shi'a.
Thus, either it's an attack against a Democratically elected government, or it's a religious motive.
It isn't 'defeated' because it's a tactic, it's a piece of working knowledge. It is reduced or eliminated simply because it isn't successful in achieving its goals.
And WHAT ARE THE GOALS of these terrorists? They don't belong to a country, now do they?
And they have stated that they are fighting to re-establish a Muslim Caliphate that would span from Central Asia all the way INTO EUROPE (Spain).
And when they achieve that, they will find another excuse to commit terrorist acts.
Get rid of the cause and you will get rid of the effect.
You can't get rid of the cause until the previous political "order" is dissolved and a legitimate one, based upon democratic values, is developed to replace it.
Giving money and technology to countries that are ruled by illegitimate and totalitarian rulers is absolutely MORONIC.
Carrots and Sticks are the only approach that can be utilized to change such behavior. That, and direct confrontation when such regimes misbehave.
Talking (diplomacy and negotiation) is fine, but when the talking is revealed to be nothing more than talk, and no one is willing to enforce the agreements, then confrontation, to include military force, must be an available option.
You don't want to learn from History, you want to relive it. All it would have taken to deter Adolf Hitler from starting WWII, would have been a strong AND COMBINED INTERNATIONAL REACTION AGAINST HIM in the mid 1930's and he would have backed down. But the weakness of will and inability of the League of Nations to enforce any of its proclamations, enticed Hitler to take greater and greater chances.
It is appeasement that encourages terrorism. Because terrorism is the "proxy" weapon that such totalitarian states use when they don't want to enter into direct confrontation with an enemy.
Hawk |
