Suicide Attacks: weapon of the future?

[Sarajevo071]

Thank you 120mm. I was just trying to help. I am researching thematic of terrorism, modern/urban wars and today’s Islamic movements for more then decade now, and I thought I could help. For months I was just trolling and reading amazing posts, opinions, experiences and studies here. I was taken with smart and honest talks and exchange of opinions from the first day I stumble on this place…

I felt, it was my time to help and contribute. Hope I will be able to that more in future.

[Culpeper]

I don't think suicide attacks work in the long run. There is always a rash of suicide attacks that eventually tapper off with nothing accomplished except for less bad guys, one at a time, and a lot of dead innocent people. Israel is a good example. Suicide attacks are overrated both tactically and strategically. It is just a stupid tactic by stupid people that end up not getting want they want. These type of people only accomplish eating their own young.

[TROUFION]

Culpeper, I have to disagree.

Look at Iraq. Suicide attacks are one of many types of attacks, yet they garner the largest media response. Also they get the most inflamatory reaction. The 'rampage' by Shiite Militia and Police in Mosul yesterday is a great example of reaction (over-reaction). If you examine the intent of the attacks: to cause a rift between the factions, to instigate civil war, it is having an effect.

Look at the US Congress, casualties (US and Iraqi) are fueling the the fire behind the withdrawal rhetoric. They are passing these Bills to tie funding to a time table for withdrawal, if the President Vetos the Bill then the Congress still achieves the objective of cutting off funding, and they can blame it on the Bush Admin. An announced timetable for withdrawal will immediatly place US/coalition forces in a lame duck status, with no authority.

Suicide attacks in Iraq are driving the sensational casualties, they gain media coverage far greater than a simple remote IED. They instigate sectarian responses, these responses could lead to increased civil war, the civil war is a big reason touted for withdrawal of US forces, the announced withdrawal of US forces on a timeline will negate their presence and defeat the 'surge' possibilities for success. The only response left that seems promising in small scale currently is the reaction of some Sunni groups to the mass killings of Iraqi's-the distancing of them from Al Qeada etc. But this is probably too little too late. This Counter-reaction will most likely fade fast once a timeline for US withdrawal is announced and the average Sunni is forced to fend for himself.

No, I do think, unfortunately that the suicide attacks are having, like a raid, effects far out reaching the troops and resources expended.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070328/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

[marct]

I just got this from the Proteus mailing list. It's worth looking at.

Countering Suicide Terrorism


In February 2000, The International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) conducted its second international conference at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel. The conference dealt with the phenomenon of suicide attacks and was attended by many world-renowned scholars, such as Ehud Shprinzak, Martha Crenshaw, Rohan Gunarathna and others. The lecturers provided historical perspective and addressed the phenomenon of suicide attacks in different regions of the world, while giving special focus to suicide attacks in Israel, Sri-Lanka, India, Lebanon, and Turkey. As a product of the conference, ICT published one of the first books on the phenomenon of suicide terrorism - Countering Suicide Terrorism.

Since the year 2000, the phenomenon of suicide attacks has spread all over the world and many countries have found themselves suffering the effects of this growing terrorist modus operandi. Suicide terrorism's increasing threat, global spread, lethality, special characteristics and the enormous challenge of countering it have raised special scholarly interest in the subject. Many articles and books have been written in recent years on this phenomenon, some of them with contradicting conclusions. As the Countering Suicide Terrorism books were sold out and due to the growing interest in this subject, ICT decided to republish this book in a digital format that can be downloaded from its website. Some of the articles in the digital version were left as they were in the original book while other articles were updated or rewritten. We believe that these articles can contribute to the existing scholarly effort in understanding the growing threat of Suicide terrorism.

In order to draw your attention, ICT published my updated article "The Rationality of the Islamic Radical Suicide attack phenomenon" on March 21, 2007 on our website <http://ict.org.il/apage/11290.php> . This article serves as an introduction to the subject.

Please download your copy of the reversed ICT publication of "Countering Suicide Terrorism"
<http://www.ict.org.il/var/119/51563-Countering%20Suicide%20Terrorism.pdf>

Marc

[Ender]

There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact. -- Mark Twain

I mention this quote because this is what I am reminded of when I read Pape in relation to suicide terrorism. (I do however, agree with his positions on air power so he can’t be all bad.) I am sure he has a mountain of evidence to support his position on the motivations of suicide attacks and I would venture that he could articulate his position better than I could mine, but that does NOT make him right. If I may be allowed to grossly paraphrase his position, he feels the catalyst for suicidal terrorism lies with a common, unified sense of nationalism that is nebulously territorial. To be perfectly candid, nothing I saw or heard in either of my deployments meshes with what this guy is saying. I am not saying that there are not, and never have been attacks that were motivated by this, only that we shouldn't amplify the voices of a handful posthumously simply because they were one of the few who cited this as their cause of choice. Many others cite politics and religious factors in their final video farewells but this does not make policy or faith the sole factor either.

It seems as though we want to treat thugs and punks as though they are statesmen and scholars and the simple fact is that the (untrained) world is loosely divided into two groups. There are those for whom violence is a last resort and an action to be considered when all others are exhausted and then there are those for whom violence is the first tool they reach for. If only the attacks in Iraq today were motivated by such lofty ideals as a “Unified Muslim Nation…” That a percentage of the attackers and instigators are educated, or come from families of some means does not mitigate the fact that they are using violent methods or exculpate them in any way. In my opinion it simply makes them a higher level thug and a greater threat to our security. Because ONE attacker, or ONE HUNDRED attackers comes from money does not mean that money is not a factor in all of this, it simply means that more likely than not, their own personal casus belli is not economically driven. That ONE attacker or ONE THOUSAND attackers may be impious, unobservant Muslims does not mean that religion does not have anything to do with this, but simply that they personally are not driven by the call to jihad.

The truth is that the clarion call has gone out to every bomb maker, hit man, sniper, petty thief, thug, ruffian and assassin out there. The message? That there are Americans, American TROOPS to be killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and it is being sent to the homicidal and suicidal alike. In addition to the usual suspects in terrorism, the message is also being delivered to the homes and gardens, wells and mosques of any person, anywhere who might have a grievance or personal beef with America. The motivations for what brings them (and the majority of the bad guys we encountered, were in fact imports) are as varied and as diverse as they can be. I generally agree that some of the people who are drawn to Iraq may have legitimate concerns or cases against the United States, that for some they are acting out of rage or desperation but I think they are again, the exception and not the rule. So while some may truly “believe” in what they are doing, most do not have such lofty ideals. We are not a perfect people and sadly despite our tremendous potential, we do not always do the right thing. Having said that, this is the best system going and for whatever flaws we may truly own, the second someone decides to be that second person and resort to violence with us the talking #### has to stop.

I completely agree that “5.56, 7.62 and .50cal are not acceptable countermeasures” and that to have to beat someone at the scene so to speak is a “point defense” that does not address the real problem. Having said that, I firmly believe the primary motivation for any attack on us over there is to instill as much doubt, fear, terror and confusion into the minds of the Iraqi and American populace as they can. With suicidal methods they are not attacking us from a tactical mindset and this is blatantly obvious because the finest military minds in the world say that these methods make zero tactical sense. That they can inflict some casualties at all is a victory that only sweetens the deal. So while I do agree that 5.56 etc… does not work as a counter measure, I am COMPLETELY convinced that .22cal, 9mm, and 5.56 are extremely effective preemptive tools, time and place dependent. (Usually the sooner the better and wherever they think they are SAFEST.) One sure way to communicate with someone who deals in terror is to use their own methods against them. I am not suggesting we send our own bombers out but rather that we choose when the bombers die and not them. From a political standpoint nothing deflates their sails faster than when the camera man gets clipped halfway through filming an attack. On a personal level nothings says "Be afraid," as well as when the neighborhood SVBIED maker is dropped outside his home, in front of his family in broad daylight. I don’t want to RESPOND to anything, I want to make them have to respond to me. If every second of their day is spent wondering, if one eye and half their mind is oriented on the footsteps behind them, they will never be as effective as when they felt safe to plan at ease among their own. Some would argue that going after the bombers and shooters themselves has little to no effect in the long term and I think that is gold plated crap. Hunting can not be your only solution and other steps need to take place concurrently with the hunt in order to succeed in the long term, but to skip the executors of the policy for the policy makers leaves a threat behind that will not “change its mind.”

Troufion originally asked whether we thought suicide attacks and the use of the methodology is successful and if so what the end state or goal would be. I feel that the attacks are successful for two reasons, neither of which is tactical. The first is that they believe they are successful and the second is that we do allow them to be successful or at the very least inadvertently perpetuate their success by vacillation.

They must feel on some level that they are successful or I contend they would not continue with these methods. I use my own personal experience as evidence. My first deployment was completely different than my second. The reason was not that we had changed, but that the enemy had. If the “Muslim playbook” calls for suicide bombings and the like the second the infidel occupies holy land, as Pape would have us believe, (I am exaggerating) then I wonder why it took so long for the practice to be adopted in Iraq? If we are so detested that our very presence on Muslim soil is looked on with loathing and murderous or suicidal thoughts then I wonder why the majority of the civilians over there truly feel they are better off now than under Saddam? Why is the single greatest fear of the Iraqi farmer not that we will stay but that we will leave without fulfilling our promises? My point is that in an evolutionary, Darwinian sense the tactics that best suited our Syrian, Iranian, Lebanese, Chechen, Egyptian, Somalian…and some Iraqi attackers to their environments were the ones that did not get them killed. (My Anthropology professor would be proud.) Tactics that are not conducive to life are quickly scrapped....

[Ender]

So where does suicide terror fit with this and what is its end state? As I said tactics that do not keep you alive are not tactics at all. So that must mean that there is more than one focus to the bombing campaign and suicide terror is actually driven by operational and strategic motivations. There is a tactical component to the “bombing campaign” but it involves the prolific use of IED’s and is the topic of another thread I saw here so I will not try to elaborate on that component now.

Assume for a second that the motivations for promoting a suicide campaign are strategic and that the perpetrators may know more about us then we would like to admit. Whenever your enemy possesses a weapon or a method you do not it is at the very least, reason to pause and reflect. In essence that is exactly what suicide terror is, it is a level that we will not stoop to, nor could if we wanted to because we do not have the slightest basis to mentally wrap our arms around an action (suicide) that fundamentally runs contrary to everything we have ever been taught or know. From a strategic standpoint those who perpetrate and film the attacks know all too well it is much easier to let us beat ourselves at home with television and computer going hand in hand with relative ignorance and complacency than it is to defeat us over there with rifles and bombs. The insurgents do not have to beat us over there; they just need to outlast us.

I do not feel that the suicidal terror is an act of desperation or impotence. It takes a tremendous amount of warped resolve to strap yourself to a vest or inside a vehicle that will take your life. It takes a certain amount of inner fortitude to kiss your wife and kids goodbye and allow yourself to be placed in operational solitude for an event that will prevent you from ever seeing them again. Clich&#233; or not I am reminded of a quote from Marlon Brando’s character Kurtz in Apocalypse Now,

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078788/quotes

“I remember when I was with Special Forces. Seems a thousand centuries ago. We went into a camp to inoculate the children. We left the camp after we had inoculated the children for Polio, and this old man came running after us and he was crying. He couldn't see. We went back there and they had come and hacked off every inoculated arm. There they were in a pile. A pile of little arms. And I remember... I... I... I cried. I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out. I didn't know what I wanted to do. And I want to remember it. I never want to forget it. I never want to forget. And then I realized... like I was shot... like I was shot with a diamond... a diamond bullet right through my forehead. And I thought: My God... the genius of that. The genius. The will to do that. Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they were stronger than we. Because they could stand that these were not monsters. These were men... trained cadres. These men who fought with their hearts, who had families, who had children, who were filled with love... but they had the strength... the strength... to do that. If I had ten divisions of those men our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral... and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling... without passion... without judgment... without judgment. Because it's judgment that defeats us.”

I am not cheering Kurtz or implying that the enemy is “stronger” than us because they are more inclined to stoop to moral depravity than we. What I would like to highlight from this is that suicide specifically and bombing in general is part of a sociological and cultural complex over there and we can not measure their actions by our own relatively ethnocentric experiences. “Because they could stand that these were not monsters.” I am less afraid of the SVBIED attacker himself or the engineer who aids him but I AM TERRIFIED of the mother who weeps tears of sorrow and JOY when that same attacker kisses her goodbye for the last time. My point is that we do not have the slightest basis for mentally absorbing this kind of behavior, it will never make sense to us, and until we truly understand why some (even a small percentage) of the population agrees with and supports suicidal attacks we will be no closer to a true answer than we are now.

One last thought in relation to suicide attacks being a complex or an “industry” of sorts. Any suicide vests we ever found came in groups of three or more. All of the vests in any one particular site or cache were invariably, identically constructed and uniformly designed. This may not sound like much but it says a great deal to me. Military organizations mass produce the items they know they are going to use often. The number of vests produced indicate that the “insurgency” (in all of its 52 flavors) plans on using them often enough to warrant making ten as opposed to one. I disagree that they have legions of trained suicide bombers lined up and ready to go but also do not believe this is an action born entirely and solely out of revenge or desperation. That the vests are usually stamped out as such indicates to me that this is less individualized, less emotional and less about desperation or rage. No one (that we ever saw) adds “For Ahmed, who died at the hands of the infidel” on his vest or vehicle and any actions I ever saw from the enemy looked less like a heart thing and more like cold, hard math.

[TROUFION]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070617/...fghan_violence

suicide attacks grow in afghanistan, what is the driver, the end state of this style of warfare, it generates fear, resentment and casualties its extreme means gains press coverage but the strategic end goal has to be more than this. It seems from some angles to be counterproductive. In cultures that value 'honor and justice' I don't see much true justice in killing civilians, the honor, I question the honor of the attacks but that is a cultural bias.

[Abu Buckwheat]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070617/...fghan_violence

suicide attacks grow in afghanistan, what is the driver, the end state of this style of warfare, it generates fear, resentment and casualties its extreme means gains press coverage but the strategic end goal has to be more than this. It seems from some angles to be counterproductive. In cultures that value 'honor and justice' I don't see much true justice in killing civilians, the honor, I question the honor of the attacks but that is a cultural bias.

View all SPBIED and SVBIED attacks for what they are ... Human Guided Weapons systems ... the motivation may be personal and religious but thats no different than the programming of a JDAM. Its a weapons platform that can retarget... if you view it this way it makes sense that apart from the IO exploitation there is no difference between a Zero or a Judy plowing into a ship off Japan and a SVBIED ramming a NATO convoy.

[Culpeper]

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).

Suicide attacks are a sign of desperation. It is a sign that a society is willing to eat its young to avoid meeting the enemy within rules of engagement. Most suicide attacks today target civilians. What countermeasures did the United States use against Japanese suicide attacks against our military? It certainly wasn't counter-suicide attacks. Suicide attacks can be a liability in the long run. It is a gamble to sway public opinion. It's up to the public to decide. Some things just aren't decided by politics and military. Hamas has not succeeded in destroying Israel with individual suicide attacks against civilians. It has caused much pain and debate amongst public opinion but it hasn't changed a thing with Israel. Israel is in the same position it was before some idiot decided it would be a good idea to send their children off to kill themselves and other civilians. So, the most effective countermeasure for today's suicide attacks is an informed public opinion. It is the one area where it is the civilians dying and therefore it is up to them what will happen to the other side. If they decide that they have had enough and want to negotiate than that is what will probably happen. If they decide they have had enough and want the destruction of those involved no matter the cost than that is what will probably happen.

[Jedburgh]

Pew Global Opinion Trends 2002-2007, 24 Jul 07: A Rising Tide Lifts Mood in the Developing World
47 Nation Pew Global Attitudes Survey

It is a global survey, but the bit that relates to the topic of this thread is that the survey reflects a Sharp Decline in Support for Suicide Bombing in Muslim Countries

....Among the most striking trends in predominantly Muslim nations is the continuing decline in the number saying that suicide bombing and other forms of violence against civilians are justifiable in the defense of Islam. In Lebanon, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Indonesia, the proportion of Muslims who view suicide bombing and other attacks against civilians as being often or sometimes justified has declined by half or more over the past five years.

Wide majorities say such attacks are, at most, rarely acceptable. However, this is decidedly not the case in the Palestinian territories. Fully 70% of Palestinians believe that suicide bombings against civilians can be often or sometimes justified, a position starkly at odds with Muslims in other Middle Eastern, Asian, and African nations.

The decreasing acceptance of extremism among Muslims also is reflected in declining support for Osama bin Laden. Since 2003, Muslim confidence in bin Laden to do the right thing in world affairs has fallen; in Jordan, just 20% express a lot or some confidence in bin Laden, down from 56% four years ago. Yet confidence in bin Laden in the Palestinian territories, while lower than it was in 2003, remains relatively high (57%)......

The section of the report on the Middle East and the Muslim world begins on page 59 of the pdf.

[marct]

From Columbia University Press

ON SUICIDE BOMBINGTalal Asad
BUY THIS BOOK ONLINE | Read more about On Suicide Bombing | Listen to a podcast interview with Talal Asad

View this excerpt in PDF format | Copyright information

Available at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/publi...d_excerpt.html

[Pragmatic Thinker]

Perhaps death is a better alternative to living in a refugee camp? Or perhaps an easily influenced young man who believes American Imperialists are out to destroy his religion is easily persuaded to kill himself? The suicide bomber does believe he is going have a much better life awaiting him on the other side, so how do you defeat this? We as Americans value our lives and self-preservation is a common characterstic, so how do we defeat people who believe in an ideology that says it is acceptable and respected to strap on explosives or drive a vehicle laden with explosives into a crowd of people, or a convoy, or a public bus? I am not ready to blame the media for reporting it, the internet for allowing them to post the vidoes, nor am I going to blame foreign or military policy...this tactic is medieval and runs counter to our culture so what do you do?

PT

[marct]

Hi PT,

this tactic is medieval and runs counter to our culture so what do you do?

The short answer is to attack it at the level it operates at - the symbolic. The long answer is to really dig into Islam and reshape both the narrative used by the groups that push it and the symbolic equations they are using to support that narrative.

First, and foremost, shift the descriptive language. Second, really examine who is doing these attacks - it isn't just "po, po people in refugee camps" as the last set of attacks in the UK demonstrate once again. Third, counter the symbolic equation inside the system by creating a series of symbolic "breaches" (these are paradoxes) which you resolve in a manner that is most advantageous to stopping these attacks.

These three actions are the symbolic equivalent of COIN ops and, like COIN, they only generate a breathing space for a "political" solution. At the symbolic level, this solution will ultimately call for the equivalent of a reformation inside Islam similar to that provoked by Al-Ghazali in the 12th century.

Marc

[Pragmatic Thinker]

Hi PT,



The short answer is to attack it at the level it operates at - the symbolic. The long answer is to really dig into Islam and reshape both the narrative used by the groups that push it and the symbolic equations they are using to support that narrative.

First, and foremost, shift the descriptive language. Second, really examine who is doing these attacks - it isn't just "po, po people in refugee camps" as the last set of attacks in the UK demonstrate once again. Third, counter the symbolic equation inside the system by creating a series of symbolic "breaches" (these are paradoxes) which you resolve in a manner that is most advantageous to stopping these attacks.

These three actions are the symbolic equivalent of COIN ops and, like COIN, they only generate a breathing space for a "political" solution. At the symbolic level, this solution will ultimately call for the equivalent of a reformation inside Islam similar to that provoked by Al-Ghazali in the 12th century.

Marc

I am not implying that only poor people are suicide bombers, there are numerous college students and other professionals throughout the Middle East who volunteer for martydom as they call it. I get what you're saying but I have no faith that anyone in our government is willing to embrace these ideas. It is interesting to watch the Senate and Congress haul General Casey now Patreus on the carpet and ask for progress reports, but I don't see much of our Madam Secretary of State answering for what her department is doing or not doing to support the political solution. I am curious who decided arming Sunni militias in the western provinces to fight was a good idea for Iraq's long term success? Anyway, good posts and thanks for the reply....

[marct]

Hi PT,

Unfortunately, i do have to agree with your somewhat pessimistic take on the political process. I've been re-reading Sun Tsu and came across a lovely quote that seems to apply in this situation:

Sun Tsu, The Art of War, Samuel B. Griffith (trans), Oxford University Press, 1963 edition

Book 3, 19-22; 31-33

19. Now there are three ways in which a ruler can bring misfortune upon his army:
20. When ignorant that the army should not advance, to order an advance or ignorant that it should retire, to order a retirement. This is described as 'hobbling the army'.
21. When ignorant of military affairs, to participate in their administration. This causes the officers to be perplexed.
22. When ignorant of command problems to share in the exercise of responsibilities. This engenders doubts in he minds of the officers.
...

31. Therefore I say: 'Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril.
32. When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal.
33. If ignorant of both your enemy and yourself, you are certain in every battle to be in peril.

[Merv Benson]

As a tactic against military units these operations have been very ineffective. In Iraq they have been primarily aimed at creating mass casualties among non combatants. This has caused a shrinking of support for these operations in almost all Muslim countries other than among the Palestinians.

One way to further shrink that support for these operations is to have more focus on the fact that the attacks are a war crime and a blatant violation of the Geneva Conventions. This would have the effect of further delegitimizing the tactic and reducing its effectiveness.

[jastay3]

Suicide bombers aren't even the weapon of the present. It seems to me they are running out of suicide bombers. And they have never had many in the first place, otherwise they would send them in wolf-packs(I've only heard of that done once). Suicide bombers are fearsome only because of novelty.
As a suicide bomber can only be used once(obviously) he is basicly a missile that walks about twenty miles in a day or rides about thirty an hour in a car. A suicide bomber takes fifteen years to "build"(be born and raised and properly propagandized). Unlike conventional missiles a suicide bomber can chicken out and not only refrain from exploding but defect to the enemy and betray his comrades.
Thus the effect of suicide bombers is primarily theatrical. While "the moral is to the physical as three to one", it is also true that "fammiliarity breeds contempt". Their effect is only in their strangeness which by definition lasts only so long as they are strange.

[jastay3]

Perhaps death is a better alternative to living in a refugee camp? Or perhaps an easily influenced young man who believes American Imperialists are out to destroy his religion is easily persuaded to kill himself? The suicide bomber does believe he is going have a much better life awaiting him on the other side, so how do you defeat this? We as Americans value our lives and self-preservation is a common characterstic, so how do we defeat people who believe in an ideology that says it is acceptable and respected to strap on explosives or drive a vehicle laden with explosives into a crowd of people, or a convoy, or a public bus? I am not ready to blame the media for reporting it, the internet for allowing them to post the vidoes, nor am I going to blame foreign or military policy...this tactic is medieval and runs counter to our culture so what do you do?

PT

Actually it is not even medieval. The Hasheshim were considered strange in their day as well.

[RTK]

Suicide bombers aren't even the weapon of the present. It seems to me they are running out of suicide bombers. And they have never had many in the first place, otherwise they would send them in wolf-packs(I've only heard of that done once). Suicide bombers are fearsome only because of novelty.
As a suicide bomber can only be used once(obviously) he is basicly a missile that walks about twenty miles in a day or rides about thirty an hour in a car. A suicide bomber takes fifteen years to "build"(be born and raised and properly propagandized). Unlike conventional missiles a suicide bomber can chicken out and not only refrain from exploding but defect to the enemy and betray his comrades.
Thus the effect of suicide bombers is primarily theatrical. While "the moral is to the physical as three to one", it is also true that "fammiliarity breeds contempt". Their effect is only in their strangeness which by definition lasts only so long as they are strange.

Your obvious lack of operational relevance is telling.

[Stan]

Hello Jastay3,

Suicide bombers aren't even the weapon of the present. It seems to me they are running out of suicide bombers. And they have never had many in the first place, otherwise they would send them in wolf-packs(I've only heard of that done once). Suicide bombers are fearsome only because of novelty.

I'm a tad confused with your recent post. Have you read some of the current stats available regarding suicide bombers lately ?

That is, where the vast majority come from ? Since 2003 studies indicate that suicide bombers in Iraq are mostly foreigners - only 15 to 18% were Iraqis.

I got this bad feeling that resources are not as scarce as you may have concluded.

Please also take a minute to introduce yourself here.

Regards, Stan