Robert Pape, a Political Science Professor at the University of Chicago, has completely debunked the idea that terrorism in Iraq is caused by religious fanaticism. Instead, it is caused by much more secular objectives such as attempting to drive foreign occupying forces out of a country.
Pape also debunks the notion that terrorists are recruited from the margins of society; instead, they are middle-class people like you and me. Many of them committed acts of violence for their first and only time by blowing things up. He derived his conclusions after compiling a database of every suicide bombing that happened since 1980. He also was able to obtain a demographic profile of over 450 Iraqis who decided to become suicide bombers.
So, if our country decides to invade Iran, our forces could be the target of even more suicide bombings. Iran has a disproportionate number of people aged 15-35, which would mean an even higher rate of bombings than is happening in Iraq.
In other findings:
–95% of suicide attacks occur because of large organizations and significant public support.
–Even a religious group like Al-Qaeda has a secular objective: Drive America out of the Middle East. So Bush was wrong when he said Bin Laden attacked us because he hated freedom.
–Despite our “official” policy of not negotiating with terrorists, even the US has made significant concessions to Bin Laden. Groups like Al-Qaeda blow things up becuase they know it gets results.
I highly recommend Pape’s new book, “Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism” because it backs up many of the things Progressives have been saying for years: Colonialism doesn’t work.
Tried to email you through your site. Did it get through?
I answered him in your diary.
I hope more and more people write books like this until even the general public will hear about these books/articles etc and it becomes common knowledge-that bushco lied, lied and lied some more about every damn thing.
I’ll let everyone know if I see some more good books like this. This may be one of the most important books since Lakoff; even the Republicans and Homeland Security are looking at Pape’s book.
Yes and no.
I think you are being too one sided. Terrorism is a tool, not a philosophy. Terrorism is used by governments and anti-government groups. In order to employ terrorism, it is psychologically necessary to define yourself as being in a separate, presumably superior (racially…morally…whatever) group from those you are terrorising. Throughout history there have been a handful of ways to define one’s group as different and superior than all others: religion (mainly after the rise of monotheism), ethnicity, nationalism and, occasionally, political ideology.
Almost all conflicts can be traced to economic causes. But almost all conflicts have as a veneer racial, nationalist or religious differences. It is a way of justifying anything. So I agree that there are often other reasons for terrorism–economics, nationalism, etc. But I disagree when you exclude religion. Religion has always been a major excuse for committing atrocities. The crusades, jihads, inquisitions, etc. all are religious excused attrocities even though most of them also have economic, nationalist, racial and other componants.
So I think you are oversimplifying in much the same way that those who attribute it ONLY to religion are oversimplifying. Never underestimate the role of religion in allowing people to justify being complete assholes.
Pape said that religion was A factor, but not the primary factor:
Most terrorist actions are directed at either an occupying colonial power or their “enablers” as the terrorists view them. So, attacking the terrorists and fighting a war on terrorism is curing the symptoms, not the disease. Even the 9/11 attacks were a response to our building bases in Saudi Arabia and our enforcement of the “no-fly zones” over Iraq.
I do agree that terrorists perform their acts because of a belief in the moral superiority of their belief system over that of the occupier’s, and that does have a religious component to it. So I suggest that the primary motive of terrorists is economic; e.g. drive the colonialists out of power.
However, there are secular terrorist groups out there; the Communists could practice terrorism, as do the Tamil Tigers. Although not totally secular, the Tamil Tigers much more so than Bin Laden’s group. And they actually committ many more acts of terrorism according to Pape than Al-Qaeda.
First a question…
Are the 450 Iraqis, actually Iraqis?
One further point I want to hammer in is this; While the USG is so quick to blame and threaten Iran and Syria for this over stated large scale infiltration of foreign Islamists, it has been well documented that the biggest problem is Saudi Arabia
But given your data, I suggest this is a form of regional nationalism and not just Iraqi nationalism at work here. Keep in mind that the European powers occupied the almost all of the Middle East and do not want to see a return to those days. The article notes that most of the people who become suicide bombers are well-educated and are thus familiar with the colonialism of earlier times.
agreed
See my diary here for more comments on this article.