On Suicide Attacks
Aug. 30th, 2005 09:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
michiexileDagens Nyheter reports (in Swedish) about research by Robert Pape into the nature of suicide bombings. Robert Pape talks about it himself to American Conservative. The subject is Pape's book Dying to Win - The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism from Random House.
He has spent two years collecting and analyzing the set of all suicide bombings since 1982. Most frequent bombers where the Tamil Tigers - a marxist group opposing Hindu occupants. More notable groups include the Sikh in Punjab, and the various components of the Kashmir conflict. Only half of the bombings had connections to islamic fundamentalism - and only 43% were done by religious people.
Once established that religion is not a high motivating factor behind the bombings, Pape goes on to point out what all do have in common: All the bombings were done by members of groups suffering under occupation. Palestinians in Israel. Hizbollah - after Israel entered Lebanon in 1982. The Tamil - after the Sri Lankian government placed 160 000 settlers. The Sikh after India positioned forces in Punjab. Al Qaida - after the US placed a significant military presence in Saudi Arabia. Iraq hadn't seen suicide bombers before the "liberation".
He has spent two years collecting and analyzing the set of all suicide bombings since 1982. Most frequent bombers where the Tamil Tigers - a marxist group opposing Hindu occupants. More notable groups include the Sikh in Punjab, and the various components of the Kashmir conflict. Only half of the bombings had connections to islamic fundamentalism - and only 43% were done by religious people.
Once established that religion is not a high motivating factor behind the bombings, Pape goes on to point out what all do have in common: All the bombings were done by members of groups suffering under occupation. Palestinians in Israel. Hizbollah - after Israel entered Lebanon in 1982. The Tamil - after the Sri Lankian government placed 160 000 settlers. The Sikh after India positioned forces in Punjab. Al Qaida - after the US placed a significant military presence in Saudi Arabia. Iraq hadn't seen suicide bombers before the "liberation".
