Suicide Attacks: weapon of the future?
Readers maybe interested in visiting this well regarded an well connected Israeli website, prompted by their latest if lengthy piece of research.
The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center is the educational and documentary center of the national memorial site of the Israeli intelligence community. It is located at the Center for Special Studies (C.S.S.), at Gelilot near Tel Aviv, and specializes in information about intelligence and terrorism. It regularly releases exclusive information on its Internet site, both in Hebrew and English (http://www.terrorism-info.org.il), a large percentage of which is based on original Palestinian documents captured by Israeli forces.
Ordinary People and Death Work:Palestinian Suicide Bombers as Victimizers and Victims
Applying criminological/victimological concepts and theories, the study addresses the social processes involved in Palestinians" suicide terrorism and describes Palestinians" pathways to suicide bombing. The data are derived from in-depth interviews of 7 male and female Palestinians serving prison sentences in Israel for attempted suicide bombing. The social background, context, and experiences of the interviewees, including their recruitment, interactions with the organizations that produce suicide bombing, the tangible and intangible incentives and rewards that motivated them to become suicide bombers, their preparation for the mission, and the strategies employed by the organizations to sustain recruits" resolve to conform to the plan are described and analyzed. The implications of the findings for theory and public policy are drawn and discussed
Suicide Attacks: weapon of the future?
We are all aware that suicide attacks have increased dramatically since 2001.
We are all aware that modern suicide attacks began in Palestine/Levant during the 1980's.
Civilizied peoples deplore, condemn and disdain suicide and suicide warfare.
BUT, the real question is this: is suicide warfare effective? What is the purpose, method and intent? The end state?
If effective then what are the counter-measures (and no 5.56, 7.62 and .50 cal are not effective counter-measures they are point defense and do not attack the root of the problem).
Pape's conclusion (summary)
Ch. 12: A New Strategy for Victory
Though “we” cannot leave the Middle East altogether, Pape asserts, a “strategy for victory” is available (237-38). U.S. should define victory as the separate objectives of “defeating the current pool of terrorists” and preventing a new generation from arising (238-39). He rejects Frum-Perle view that the root of the problem is in Islam (241-44). “Rather, the taproot is American military policy” (244). The notion that Islamic fundamentalism is bent on world domination is “pure fantasy” (244-45). An attempt by the West to force Muslim societies to transform “is likely to dramatically increase the threat we face” (245). He calls for a policy of “‘off-shore’ balancing”: establishing local alliances while maintaining the capacity for rapid deployment of military forces (247-50).
(Tequila thanks for the link, via Wikipedia)
WE now have a resevoir of US and Coalition Troops who have faced this threat. What methods to counter work? Does Pape's analysis still hold water?
Weren't the Kamikazes somewhat first ?
Perhaps a tad earlier than 1980 ?
Quote:
Kamikazes were the most common and best-known form of Japanese suicide attack during World War II
Different looks on Islam ...
Just be careful not to confuse LOCAL/TRIBAL customs, which sneak in local understanding of what is Islam. Great examples would be Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya…
Afghanistan is full of pervasive look on bad behavior toward women (local/tribal customs according to Ahmed Rashid-man who knows that good- I recommend both his books), and mentality that was changed under decades of warfare and wahabi/salafi influence:
Bosnia was and still is open, multicultural society, always closer to European life style then to Arabic way of life, keeping Islam in sphere of private life, never forcing others into it. Even during they war when they felt abounded by Europe and US simple because they were muslims dying under serbian (christian) shells.
War in Chechnya started like a public resistance and war for liberation. Once again, Muslim populous was abounded by “freedom loved” and “democratic West” so they got help where they could… Arabs and they wahabi/salafi look on Islam. Let’s not forget, Wahabism is just ONE sect in Islam.
Anyways, my point is that Islam is not what many people today think that Islam is. There are many local customs and beliefs, behaviors that got mix and people there think that is Islam and they behave that way.
Compare Afghans and Taliban, and they appalling behavior toward woman while Islam when started rise up against killings of baby-girls just because Arabs in those time used to buried female babies just for being born - female!? Islam put end to that. And that same thing is still happening in China and Korea (not sure if those people are Buddhist or Christians, but they are not Muslims).
We may here discuses difference of suicide bomber killing civilians in restaurants or pilots killing villages with bombs, but ultimately there is no difference between innocents. I don’t think that those people care for different labels like “terrorism” and “preemptive strikes” and “collateral damage”. There is just they pain, tears and blood.
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I recommend these books by Ahmed Rashid:
Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia
http://www.amazon.com/Taliban-Milita...e=UTF8&s=books
Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia
http://www.amazon.com/Jihad-Rise-Mil...e=UTF8&s=books
Analyze this recent attack:
In light of the discussion so far, read this AP account of a recent high profile suicide attack. How does this fit the MO, what is the effect: short and long term?
NATO: Intelligence suggested bomb threat By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer
Wed Feb 28, 3:01 PM ET
Intelligence reports indicated that the Taliban had the ability to carry out suicide attacks near the main U.S. base in Afghanistan even before a bloody bombing during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney, NATO said Wednesday.
Col. Tom Collins, the top spokesman for NATO's force in Afghanistan, said suicide bomb cells were present in the capital, Kabul, just 30 miles south of Bagram Air Base.
"We know for a fact that there has been recent intelligence to suggest that there was the threat of a bombing in the Bagram area," Collins told reporters. "It's clear that there are suicide bomber cells operating in this country. There are some in the city of Kabul."
Tuesday's bombing killed 23 people, including two Americans, outside Bagram while Cheney was meeting with officials inside. The Taliban claimed the attack was aimed at Cheney, but officials said it posed no real threat to the vice president.
The attacker never tried to penetrate even the first of several U.S.-manned security checkpoints at Bagram, instead detonating his explosives among a group of Afghan workers outside the base.
"The Taliban's claims that they were going after the vice president were absurd," Collins said.
Collins said it was unclear whether the Taliban had really known of Cheney's visit, or if the timing of the attack was a coincidence. The last suicide bombing at Bagram was in June 2006, when an attack aimed at a U.S. convoy wounded two Afghans near a market area outside the base.
U.S. Ambassador Ronald Neumann said he did not believe the Taliban had responded to Cheney's presence, given that he arrived on Monday and only stayed the night because bad weather forced him to postpone a meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
"I just have not seen the ability to react that quickly, to grab your handy-dandy latest suicide candidate, who is usually not your brightest fellow around, and get him mobilized and get him up to the gate," Neumann said. "It strains credulity for me."
He said Cheney "could have been in New York for all the threat" the bomb posed.
Afghanistan's Interior Ministry said a preliminary investigation suggested the bomber was a foreigner. But Lt. Col. David Accetta, a U.S. military spokesman, said the best that investigators could determine was that the bomber was of "Middle Eastern descent," meaning he could have been from Afghanistan, Pakistan or other neighboring countries.
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Associated Press reporter Fisnik Abrashi contributed to this report.
How does a 'pension' affect suicide bombing?
I recall Saddam Hussain provided large cash sums to Palestinian suicide bombers. Now it is a widely used tactic in Afghanistan and Iraq, are the bombers influenced by alternative pension providers?
I assume there are plenty of rich supporters of the cause, individuals or institutions, with a variety of motives.
Anyone aware of open source research on this aspect?
davidbfpo