Suicide Terrorism

Suicide Terrorism has been the means of striking fear into the American people. After many different incidents that have occurred in the United States, Americans consider these terrorists as crazy, unethical, radical and terrible human beings. It seems that these terrorists have no reasoning behind their attack except for having a weird religion, crazy beliefs, or being totally radical but if we take a step back from this situation we can find out the truth about these suicide terrorists.

Robert Pape, an expert in suicide terrorism, came up with some conclusion after looking at 315 attack/18 campaigns of data from suicide terrorists:

1.There was little connection between suicide terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism or any of the world’s religions

2. Nearly all attacks share a specific and strategic goal – To compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that terrorists consider to be their homelands.

If we look at the dominant information we can see that the terrorists are only trying to “protect” their own homeland by doing what is necessary in their minds. While it might at first seem like these terrorists are not logical, it is our own decision making and silos that keep us from understanding these suicide terrorists.

Comments (2)

Ben Pirotte

September 21, 2014

I thought this was a great presentation that really emphasizes how the illusion of control still applies at such a large level. I think that this is a very important fact to consider when dealing with foreign policy. For example, the colonial United States had a similar, albeit slightly less violent, reaction when Britain was imposing control over the colonies. Raising taxes, among other activities, seems fairly tame compared to occupying other territory or direct government intervention, yet the colonists responded rebelliously in kind. Our history classes teach these events painting the colonists in a heroic light, valiantly usurping oppression. Yet we are quick to impose our own control over other countries affairs, whether it is to stop communism, to find so-called weapons of mass destruction, or to act as a global police. There is quite a lot to be learned from this lesson.
Ravi Prathipati

September 6, 2014

I really liked your presentation and how it showed that terrorism was more about defending themselves or in retaliation to the U.S. forces invading them. It was interesting to see the correlation between the rise of drone attacks and suicide bombing. Looking at their view and the death tolls that have been increasing, it could be argued they are justified. From 2003-2011, over 116,000 deaths and over 250,000 injuries have occurred. However, those were a result of both sides. If somewhere was to invade the USA, we would respond by fighting back and it’s the same thing that they are doing.

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