http://www.amconmag.com/2005_07_18/article.html
The Logic of Suicide Terrorism: It's the Occupation, not the Fundamentalism
In this article, Robert Pape of the University of Chicago asserts that suicide terror is driven not by Islamic Fundamentalism, but by terrorist's wish to rid their homelands of foreign forces. His argument does not persuade me because while occupation may be the chief concern that causes terrorists to commit acts of violence, the motivation to perfrom suicide terror may be influenced by many different grievances terrorist groups have against those people occupying their homelands. When considering why a group might be opposed to foreign occupation, differences in religion would defintely be something to consider. Such differneces could drive individuals to perform acts of suicide terror in the hopes of liberating the homeland. I would be interested in finding out what others think about this article. It is a quick and interesting read, and it does have some good points.
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3 comments:
I have also read this article and found it insightful in many instances. While not every population facing an occupying force, and seeks the removal of the occupation forces, will resort to the tactics of suicide terrorism suicide terrorism is rarely used in other instances. So, while religious extremism may be a requisite condition, these same extremists may have never adopted suicide bombing as a tactic had they not faced an occupying military force....Dont't get me wrong, I agree that multiple factors contribute to the adoption of suicide terrorism as a tactic, but maybe the driving force for extremist groups is the occupation and not their religious views.
I have to agree with Luke. Robert Pape seemed like he knew what he was talking about. If suicide terrorists were only committing suicide for the reason that they and radical religious differences than they would attack other countries besides the countries occupying their territory. I doubt someone would be willing to commit suicide to harm another country where the only problem is that they have different religious values. On the other hand if there was an occupation in the terrorist land and they wanted the occupiers to leave than suicide terrorism seems a lot more probably because the suicide terrorist could see himself sacrifices for his friends and family.
http://www.meforum.org/article/1826
Robert Pape's article has been extremely influential in describing the motivation of terrorist groups. However, not all scholars are convinced that strategy and not ideology is the primary impetus of terrorism. This recent article by Jonathan Fine from Hebrew University of Jerusalem suggests that "the war against the enemies of Islam is not limited by time, territory, or a specific socioeconomic agenda, and it is being waged against an entire culture and civilization"
I think that as we learn more about terrorism, it will be important for us to think about whether the current Islamic terrorism is fundamentally different than other kinds of previous terrorism, and whether it will require a different kind of solution.
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