The Strategic Logic Of Suicide Terrorism Summary

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

fundamentalism. The main agitator of suicide attacks is “the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, a

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)

They elucidate that terrorism is a “premeditated, politically motivated, violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups of clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience,” (National Institute of Justice).

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

The modern day suicide bomber is effective in the sense that they do cause fear and death but is greatly overused that they rarely become news worthy. Immediately after the 9/11 attacks, the suicide bomber became all the rage and the ultimate fear of Americans. After ten years of war in the Middle East and Southwest Asia, the suicide bomber is cliché to the terrorist ideology and borderline boring and expected. Terrorists want to cause fear in a sense that causes a domino effect of destruction. Though the suicide bomber is effective, there is nothing more effective than the use of a biological attack in a crowded area. It is quiet, lethal and takes a long time to detect the source and even longer time to trace it back to a suspect. Within

This quote by Pat Robertson works as a great illustration for how our nation reacted to the suicide attacks carried out by Al-Qaeda on United States soil. The initial reaction by political pundits and politicians alike was that the only cause of these attacks was due to a radical Islamic view on the world. However, in Robert A. Pape and James K. Feldman’s book Cutting the Fuse they try to analyze data on suicide bombing and try to determine what is the root cause of these violent acts. Their conclusions are the exact opposite of the rhetoric that was presented to the American public. Instead of blaming Islamic extremists, they instead come to the conclusion, “that military occupation is the main factor driving suicide terrorism” (Pape & Feldman 10). Furthermore, they also put forth the argument that our current military strategies involving military occupation are counter-productive because rather than deterring violence, it actually increases suicide-bombings committed against American forces. In this paper I will examine the conclusions Robert Pape and James Feldman have come to and will also analyze these conclusions in Cutting the Fuse with a belief that this text works to refute much of what the American public has been told.

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

Suicide bombing is a cruel way of hurting others and yourself. Some reasons why people do suicide bombing is because of trauma, humiliation, and social exclusion. They justify it by using liberation from foreign occupation or because of their nations religion. When they bomb they attempt significance restoration, signification gain, and prevention of significant loss according to onlinelibrary (Kruglanski, Chen, Dechense, Fishman., Orehek, 2009). Suicide bombers are not really suicidal, they are psychologically normal people but they suicide bomb for a ideological cause because of social and situational factors says Cambrige (Lankford, 2014).

The depression and suicidal tendencies that they tend to hide from the public eye soon overwhelm them and drive the would-be suicide bomber to join a terrorist cell. In return if they were to commit suicide, it would have a meaning (for a cause). “Most telling of all, it later emerged that al-Bliss had suffered from mental health problems most of her life and had made two previous suicide attempts. Her case is far from unique. Consider Quari Sami, who blew himself up in a cafe in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2005. He walked in - and kept on walking, past crowded tables and into the bathroom at the back where he closed the door and detonated his belt. He killed himself and two others, but could easily have killed more. It later emerged that he was on antidepressants” (Lankford, Adam). In these lines, New Scientist Magazine adds evidence to the matter that some suicide bombers don’t blow themselves up and kill many other people for the terrorist cell’s beliefs, but instead to conceal the depression they have inside them. They only do this terrible deed just to add meaning to their death. People today tend not to accept the fact that suicide bombers would blow themselves up and fatally or non-fatally hurt so many people just because of their own depression. But the truth cannot be evaded, suicide bombers can be created by the concealment of inner demons. In addition, “Even Mohammad Atta, the 9/11 ringleader and the archetype of the “normal” suicide terrorist, was misunderstood. He struggled with social isolation, depression, guilt, shame and hopelessness for many years” (Lankford, Adam). In these lines, New Scientist Magazine adds another amount of evidence to the matter of suicide bombers blowing themselves up and killing other people just to conceal their own depression. It is stated that even Mohammad Atta, the 9/11 ringleader and the archetype of the “normal” suicide terrorist, suffered from

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.