There's an article in the current "New Scientist" magazine that discusses
studies that found it's easy to convince almost anyone to suicide bomb.
"T Moore" < click.an.email.ico@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:Xns96A5E1433B9Eciliesadliberoit@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> The revelation that the British intelligence services MI5 and MI6 not
> only had no advance warning of the terrorist attacks on 7 July, but even
> predicted a 'quiet summer' in the city - adding that, according to them,
> there was no terrorist cell with the intention or the capacity for a
> terror attack in the immediate future - chills the blood. "Who will
> strike next and where?", is the question many are asking and nobody can
> answer.
>
> In the countless vox pops, panel discussions and political debates on
> radio and television one central theme emerges: nothing, but absolutely
> nothing, can ever justify a suicide bomb attack. Do not take part in a
> radio phone-in and bring up the scandalous way the west has been
treating
> the people of the Arab world over many decades; you will be repeatedly
> asked if that means there is a justification for suicide bombing. Say
yes
> and they'll bite your head off.
>
> People blowing themselves and others up in some cause or other are - we
> are now told - the lowest, the most cowardly, dastardly form of criminal
> imaginable. Even representatives of the Muslim community are now taking
> this view - at least in public. Their private thoughts remain well
> hidden.
>
> The notion that nothing, absolutely nothing, can justify a suicide
attack
> has taken hold.
>
> Except with me. For one thing, the fact that we do not know what motive
> the London bombers had does not mean they didn't have any. For another,
> there can be cir***stances in which the motives seem pretty strong.
Think
> of the Chechens, the Tamils in Sri Lanka, the insurgents in Iraq and, of
> course, the Palestinians. Their motives may differ, but in all these
> cases the suicide attack is the one weapon in their limited arsenal that
> can worry a superior military power.
>
> Take the Palestinians. Their fight for a viable state of their own pits
> them against a formidable military machine, with tanks, cannon, planes
> and missiles. Boys with slingshots and men with outmoded firearms have
no
> more hope of hurting the Israelis than a mosquito has of biting an
> elephant. But the suicide bombers, ah, they're a different matter. They
> may not bring the objective of a state much closer - only international
> arm-twisting of Israel can do that - but it makes sure they're not
> forgotten and their cause stays on the agenda.
>
> We have to be careful, as the blood pours down our faces, not to start
> thinking of 'their evil violence' as opposed to 'our justified
violence'.
> Scary, unsettling and in-your-face suicide action may be, but it is no
> different, either morally or in terms of the result, from the remote
> control mayhem the western powers prefer to inflict. The citizens of
> Baghdad who died as cruise missiles launched many miles away impacted
all
> around them can confirm that. Shock and awe come in different varieties.
> The suggestion that it's alright for us to kill them but not for them to
> come and kill us is one that we should knock on the head without delay.
>
> I can honestly say that, much as I don't like the idea of being blasted
> to kingdom come, I cannot and will not value my own life over that of
any
> other human on the planet. All unnecessary death diminishes us as a
> species, killing each other pushes us as a species even further down the
> evolutionary ladder. Not that that is going to be one iota of help if
the
> bombers get to me before the final work of the murderer of South London,
> Mr Keith P. Exford.
>
>
> --
> T Moore
> N E Manchester, England
>
> http://sitemenu.tom-moore.com/
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