Jacob Wiegman
Professor Amaleia Kolovos
INTS 1700
2 March 2015
Dying to Win Issue Analysis
In Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism Robert Pape examines the Western misconceptions of suicide terrorism and the failures of foreign policy towards addressing this trans-national issue. Failures to recognize the issue of policy towards Suicide Terrorism worsens the issue and making this issue only larger. This paper will analyze Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism and refute the unrealistic Western perception of suicide terrorism.
Pape’s book examines the fallacies of suicide terrorism. He claims that his book is “the first complete universe of suicide terrorist attacks worldwide” from 1980 to 2003 (3, Pape). He claims to have independently verified all sources of the information in the book. The main takeaway from the reading is that the trend of suicide terrorism (while growing more deadly) is nothing new to the world. Pape claims suicide terrorism has been carried out by groups ever since Ancient Middle Eastern times, specifically by Jewish Zealots. (11, Pape). Suicide terrorism can be broken down into three categories into which every suicide terrorist attack fits. I found three main take away points from the reading. The first point is that suicide terrorist attacks are part of an organized campaign against a group, these attacks do not happen sporadically; instead they are connected to local, national and global political events.
Every suicide attacker has their own specific reason to achieve their objective, whether it be a means of expressing their thoughts or feelings, their religious calling, or their social status in their community. An obvious example of this relates to one of the most devastating events in all of U.S. history, 9/11. Although only nineteen hijackers participated in the attacks, the devastation caused by this small group of individuals had led to the death and/or injury of 2,977 victims. As a result,
In order to attempt to deter a possible recruit of suicide terrorism, these recruits would need to look at the big picture and realize that in order to create a lasting impression they could accomplish a whole lot more in the living form. Instead these suicide groups create a lasting impression of the martyrs
what they do and to whom. Pape is trying to convey that "suicide terrorism is rising around the
Over the past decades suicide terrorism has confirmed its effective tactic and it is seem to be developing and growing movement. Terrorism is designed to cause panic within people, communities and countries but also to gain the publicity through media. Suicide terrorism, more than other forms of terrorist activities is presenting determination and dedication both of dying by individual terrorist as well as the desire to kill innocent people. Suicide terrorism is an attractive tool for terrorist activities with guarantee media publicity with the international dimension. The aim of the attacks is to draw attention of governments, international organisations and
This article by Isabelle Duyvesteyn starts off by summarising the objectives that challenge the perspective of terrorism since the last decade of the twentieth century is fundamentally new. In this article certain questions have been debated regarding new aspects of terrorism and they are: “transnational nature of the perpetrators and their organizations, their religious inspiration, fanaticism, use of weapons of mass destruction and their indiscriminate targeting.” ("How New Is the New Terrorism?", 2017)In order to understand the depth of aspects of new terrorism the article talks about “national and territorial focus of the new terrorists, their political motivations, use of conventional weaponry and the symbolic targeting that is aimed in order to achieve a surprising effect.” ("How New Is the New Terrorism?", 2017)
“Terrorism's particularly heinous but highly attractive means to achieve political objectives or even radically restructure political foundations is manifest within societies in all reaches of the world. While the practical application of terrorist methodologies comes across as a relatively straightforward craft, the conceptual and ideological understanding, and subsequent evaluation of its socio-political influence, implementation, and psychological impacts present difficult questions, and in some cases conceivably insurmountable obstacles” (Romaniuk 2014, para
Did it surprise you that suicide bombers tend not to be psychologically unstable or that they are not mainly motivated by religion? How do the facts and findings reported in this article conflict with our usual cultural understanding of terrorists and suicide bombers?
Suicide terrorism is one of those acts of violence that is almost impossible to defend against. In his article, Atran (2003) explains suicide terrorism as “the targeted use of self-destructing humans against noncombatant-typically civilian-populations to effect political change” (pg. 1534). One of the most remembered dates is American history is September 11, 2001. This was a day in which suicide terrorism took the lives of nearly 3,000 Americans (History.com, 2010). This suicide attack is where 19 Al-Qaeda followers hi-jacked four airplanes and used them to crash them into the World Trade Center in New York and into the Pentagon in Washington D.C. This triggered the then President, George W. Bush to declare war to “destroy Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network based there” (History.com, 2010). Osama bin Laden was Al-Qaeda leader that claimed responsibility of the suicide attack on the United States. This type of use of suicide terrorism was not only used to kill many innocent people, but to be televised and reported on to put fear into the
According to Morgenstern (n.d.) in a publication about the history of suicide terror attacks are reviewed. The article sites facts from early terrorist attacks in 1983 as well as of detailed attacks in recent years. The author provides insight to the recruitment and training methods used by terror groups based on case studies and classified information from Israeli police. Their findings conclude that religion
The second Part of Jonathan R. White’s ninth edition Terrorism and Homeland Security deals with the national and ethnic movements of international terrorism, their emergence as well as well as motifs. Ideological terrorist and ethnic separatists are hard to differentiate since they use the same procedures and tactics to get their demands. Although both fall under the definition of terrorism, there is a difference in the definition of their goals and demands. While separatists have defined, achievable goal, religious terrorists have a nihilistic ideology that are from a rational point of view not feasible. Therefore, it is impossible for satisfactorily negotiation
Suicide terrorism is frequently associated with irrational behavior. In the article “The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism” written by Robert A. Pape, he asserts that suicide terrorism are strategies of rational thinking. Furthermore, he claims that leaders of terrorist organizations utilize suicide terrorism, as a form of coercion. Thus, he characterizes suicide terrorism as a rational and strategic act amongst the leaders of terrorist organizations to achieve their political objectives. Although Pape constructed a significant correlation between coercion, suicide terrorism, and success. The article, however, fails to present a well-balanced argument, opposing viewpoints, and lacked sufficient
Most bomb threats are received by telephone, with some received by note, letter or e-mail. All bomb threats should be taken seriously and handled as though an explosive were in the building. Although most bomb threats are hoaxes designed to cause alarm and disruption, “no call or threat should be disregarded.” Prince Williams County Police Department has the responsibility to respond to suspected bomb threats that may occur in the county. It is the goal of the police department that we protect our citizens and emergency response personnel from injury.
During the Iraq war, Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), the United States was introduced to suicide terrorism, which was used to threaten and exterminate the Iraqi security forces and to start a civil war amongst the Shi’i and Sunni Muslims (Hafez 2006). To dictate when a suicide attack is approaching, there are two developments that are involved: one is on the battlefield and the other in the political arena (Hafez 2006). On the battlefield, insurgents want to show their enemies and supporting audience they will not be intimidated, nor will they surrender their motives in the face of repression (Hafez 2006). In the public arena, suicidal terrorism arose “after the January 2005 elections for an assembly to draft a new Iraqi constitution, endorsement
David Rodin claims that, 'the case for both for and against preventative war is made in consequentialist terms' which he believes to be a mistake. Rodin states that, 'Consequentialism suffers from debilitating epistemdpgical problems that renders it effectivly useless as a moral theory of war'. Walter Sinnott-Armstrong however concludeds that conseqentiaism under certain cercumstances can be benifical in preventive war. Sinnott-Armstrong argues that 'conseqentialism raises serious doubts about cases that previously seemed easy might show how illluminating consequentialism is' asserning that this is a virtue not a vice of consequentialism'. Futhermore, Snniott-Armstrong argues that despite Rodins claim that consequentialism is usless in preventive war, that the evidence is there its just a matter of weighing it all together. Although Sinnott-Armstrong admits that Rodin assertion that 'Consequenistialism is frequently a deeply disapointing guide', that
Walter Laqueur’s book, “The New Terrorism: Fanaticism and the Arms of Mass Destruction”, is empowering readers with the entire spectrum of terrorism. The reasons behind terrorism are not easy to understand, but Laqueur goes into great detail to try and bring the reader to an understanding of what the terrorist is thinking in order to justify the means to the end.