Through a circuitous route that began at The Sideshow and ended at The American Conservative, I happened upon the book Dying to Win, by Robert Pape of the University of Chicago. Professor Pape has studied the 315 known terrorist attacks from 1980 to 2003 and made some not-so-startling conclusions:
Link: Throwing America a Life Preserver .
Pape concludes that "the data show there is little connection between suicide terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism, or any of the world's religions."
"Rather, what nearly all suicide terrorist attacks have in common is a specific secular and strategic goal: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from the territory that the terrorists consider to be their homeland. Religion is rarely the root cause, although it is often used as a tool by terrorist organizations in recruiting and in other efforts in service of the broader strategic objective." [emphasis mine]
This is probably news to most Americans, who see themselves (by extension of their taxes supporting vast military actions abroad) as fighting the enemy in their homeland in order to "teach them a lesson," which is, I suppose, you Don't Mess with Texas. America.
The American Conservative asks:
TAC: That would seem to run contrary to a view that one heard during the American election campaign, put forth by people who favor Bush’s policy. That is, we need to fight the terrorists over there, so we don’t have to fight them here.
RP: Since suicide terrorism is mainly a response to foreign occupation and not Islamic fundamentalism, the use of heavy military force to transform Muslim societies over there, if you would, is only likely to increase the number of suicide terrorists coming at us.
Duh. Read the rest, it confirms what those of us who opposed the war in Iraq knew all along. (Not all of us, by the way, were starry eyed leftists. Lots of conservatives said the same thing. They just should have said it louder. About the decibel level of the Howard Dean scream would have been about right.)
More required reading: "Tomorrow you will be in Paradise" about the training "suicide bombers" (who prefer to be called "marytrs") undergo. Again, the conclusions are surprising. Bombers aren't poor and uneducated, as we saw in the 9/11 attacks.
Understand your enemy. And get the hell out of their space. Before this happens:
Link: The Logic of Suicide Terrorism.
"The longer our forces stay on the ground in the Arabian Peninsula, the greater the risk of the next 9/11, whether that is a suicide attack, a nuclear attack, or a biological attack."
Or, even worse, liberals like me will be saying "I told you so."
