The strategic logic of suicide terrorism

dahamsta

[Not my title. I wasn't sure if this should be posted in here or in Humanities. I don't spend time in Humanities, so I posted it here. I'm afraid I have to go against forum policy by not commenting - I just thought it was an interesting, unemotional insight into the logical reasoning behind this horrendous tactic.]

University of Chicago Magazine

Robert Pape asks why the deadly tactic is on the rise and what can be done about it.

Television and newspaper reports show bloody images of the damage wreaked by suicide bombers, and we wonder how human beings could choose to give up their lives that way, using their bodies as weapons. Many believe religious motives, specifically Islamic fundamentalism, play a part, but the world leader in suicide terrorism actually is the Marxist-Leninist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which recruits from the mostly Hindu Tamil population in Sri Lanka. A certain demographic profile was once thought prevalent, but recent attacks have been committed by both the educated and uneducated, single and married, male and female, young and middle-aged.

Viewed from the perspective of a terrorist organization, the seemingly irrational act is a well-planned, logical strategy to achieve specific political goals, says Robert Pape, PhD'88, associate professor of political science. And suicide attacks have increased over the past two decades, Pape says, because terrorists have learned that they work.

"Suicide terrorism is basically a punishment strategy used by terrorist organizations not only to inflict immediate punishment against a target society," Pape argues, "but more important, to threaten more punishment to come in the future." The suicide "sends a powerful message that the attacker could not have been deterred," he says. "Suicide also allows for the art of martyrdom, which connects the attacker to the broader community."

At an October workshop in Pick Hall Pape, who directs the U of C's Program on International Security Policy and chairs the Committee on International Relations, presented his working paper on suicide terrorism's rise. More than 50 students and faculty crammed around thick wooden tables, sat on the floor, or stood against the walls. They listened to—and later grilled—their colleague, dark-haired and solid in thick glasses and a three-piece suit.

[...]

Clintons Cat

if they ever reshow the bbc2 everyman episode "inside the mind of a suicide bomber" on satelite make a point of watching it.

Its fascinating stuff.The program makers analysed the video footage of the suicide bombers preperation and they found suprising ammounts of modern brainwashing techniques at play.
Things like how the "martyrs" hair is shaved and their personal clothing is replaced with white robes to help remove their sense of identity.
How in the weeks leading up to attack the bomber leaves his familiar surroundings and enters into a sterile and austere enviroment,all familiar sensory deprivation techniques to anyone familiar with groups like the moonies.
The future bomber is refered to in the past tense,giving him a sense of "fait accomplie" or destiny.

It doesnt explain why a person chooses to become a suicide bomber but it certainly explains why having chosen the path of "martyr" so many go through with it.

DadaKopf

Suicide bombers have rituals like priests and American schoolkids. Among the Palestinians, the suicide bombers go through a period before the event in which they become, essentially, the living dead. Until they actually do go and blow themselves to bits.

It's always been a tactic to present terrorist bombers as fanatical extremists, more led by passion and irrationality than personal and political conviction and solid analysis. It's useful that we, the 'normal people' perceive ourselves as sane and rational and them as insane and irrational. Sure, their tactics are extreme, but irrational? No, they're extremely well thought out; think of the IRA's strategy. Let's counter the Eastern brand of terrorism with the US's current political strategy.

It's been recognised by scholars that the US's global expansion shouldn't be considered hyper-imperialism because that implies careful planning based on a very specific racist ideology. Rather, American expansionism can be most accurately termed 'bio-terrorism' which implies a more viral, subversive form of cultural imperialism that operates more like HIV or Smallpox. But America prides itself on being the rational actor, doesn't it?

Well, outwardly, to the American people, this is the image they foster. However, a recently declassified Strategic Intelligence document reveals their true colours. Essentials of Post-Cold War Deterrence clearly states:

t hurts to portray ourselves as too fully rational and cool-headed. The fact that some elements may appear to be potentially "out of control" can be beneficial to creating and reinforcing fears and doubts thin the minds of an adversary's decision makers. 'This essential sense of fear is the working force of deterrence. That the US may become irrational and vindictive if its vital interests are attacked should be part of the national persona we project to all adversaries.

So it turns out America isn't all that different form the suicide bombers. The US state is applying the strategic logic of terrorism themselves. They have no moral high ground.

Clintons Cat

i dont think the history of imperialism should be considered as a defined pre thought out strategy,I think oportunism more than idealism shaped the imperial model,thus you get very different colonial models,not only between conflicting dynastys such as the belgians,french,dutch,british,ottoman,spanish and japanese but within those models also.
Thus the colonial experience of the Indians was very different from that of the Irish,or the Rhodesians or the Americans or for that matter the iraqis during the days of the British Empire.