How to End Suicide Bombings: Problem Is Not Islam, but Military Occupations
WILLIAM HARMS - University of Chicago
http://www.newswise.com/articles/how-to-end-suicide-bombings-problem-is-not-islam-but-military-occupations?ret=/articles/list&category=latest&page=6&search[status]=3&search[sort]=date+desc&search[has_multimedia]=
"...Despite a popular belief that suicide terrorism is the result of religious fanaticism, such bombings are really a calculated response to occupations by outsiders, according to research in a new book, "Cutting the Fuse: The Explosion of Global Suicide Terrorism and How to Stop It". The book examines exhaustive data on suicide attacks since 1980 in the Middle East, Chechnya, Sri Lanka and around the world.
The data show that the best way to reduce suicide bombings in Afghanistan or Iraq is not to condemn Islamic extremism, but to end foreign occupations as quickly as possible, Pape claims.
Pape’s co-author is James Feldman, a former professor of decision analysis and economics at the Air Force Institute of Technology and the School of Advanced Airpower Studies. The book is published by the University of Chicago Press.
Their work shows that the suicide terrorism threat to America is growing, despite military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as Pakistan’s attempts to fight its own militants.
'Each month there are more suicide terrorists trying to kill Americans and their military allies in Afghanistan, Iraq and other Muslim countries than in all the years before 2001 combined,” Pape said. In addition to nations where the United States is involved in military conflicts, the United States also has stationed troops on the Arabian Peninsula, a situation that al Qaeda claims is the reason for its hostility to the U.S.
The central problem is that leaders in the United States have constructed a narrative that identified the threat as coming from Islamic extremists who hate the United States. That explanation led to the invasions, occupations and eventual efforts to establish democratic regimes, something that requires a heavy military presence, the authors explained.
'But we now have strong evidence that the narrative - that suicide terrorism is prompted by Islamic fundamentalism - is not true,” Pape said. Despite some military success, suicide terrorism has continued, Pape said.
The book’s extensive research points out that after the United States occupied Afghanistan and Iraq, suicide attacks worldwide rose dramatically - from 300 between 1980 and 2003 to 1,800 from 2004 to 2009. More than 90 percent of the attacks were anti-American. Indirect occupations, in which the United States helps lead an occupation without committing troops, such as in Pakistan, have the same impact as direct occupations and explain the rise of suicide terrorism there, Pape said. The research also showed that civilian casualties during occupations increase suicide terrorism by giving terrorist leaders rallying points to turn local residents against the invading force.
Pape oversees the Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism, the world’s largest academic research project on suicide terrorism, and Feldman is the project’s principal advisor. The CPOST team recently completed a study of more than 2,000 suicide attacks. The team also studied tapes left by suicide bombers and collected other key information, such as their religious backgrounds, methods and number of casualties resulting from the attacks.
The research found that in each of the countries where suicide terrorism flourished, it was used to combat an occupying force. While occupation may sometimes be necessary to achieve immediate foreign policy goals, it does so at the risk of stimulating a suicide terrorist campaign against the occupier’s homeland. This is the dilemma an occupier faces, Feldman noted, since when the threat of occupation was removed, suicide terrorism largely stopped. "
WILLIAM HARMS - University of Chicago
http://www.newswise.com/articles/how-to-end-suicide-bombings-problem-is-not-islam-but-military-occupations?ret=/articles/list&category=latest&page=6&search[status]=3&search[sort]=date+desc&search[has_multimedia]=
"...Despite a popular belief that suicide terrorism is the result of religious fanaticism, such bombings are really a calculated response to occupations by outsiders, according to research in a new book, "Cutting the Fuse: The Explosion of Global Suicide Terrorism and How to Stop It". The book examines exhaustive data on suicide attacks since 1980 in the Middle East, Chechnya, Sri Lanka and around the world.
The data show that the best way to reduce suicide bombings in Afghanistan or Iraq is not to condemn Islamic extremism, but to end foreign occupations as quickly as possible, Pape claims.
Pape’s co-author is James Feldman, a former professor of decision analysis and economics at the Air Force Institute of Technology and the School of Advanced Airpower Studies. The book is published by the University of Chicago Press.
Their work shows that the suicide terrorism threat to America is growing, despite military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as Pakistan’s attempts to fight its own militants.
'Each month there are more suicide terrorists trying to kill Americans and their military allies in Afghanistan, Iraq and other Muslim countries than in all the years before 2001 combined,” Pape said. In addition to nations where the United States is involved in military conflicts, the United States also has stationed troops on the Arabian Peninsula, a situation that al Qaeda claims is the reason for its hostility to the U.S.
The central problem is that leaders in the United States have constructed a narrative that identified the threat as coming from Islamic extremists who hate the United States. That explanation led to the invasions, occupations and eventual efforts to establish democratic regimes, something that requires a heavy military presence, the authors explained.
'But we now have strong evidence that the narrative - that suicide terrorism is prompted by Islamic fundamentalism - is not true,” Pape said. Despite some military success, suicide terrorism has continued, Pape said.
The book’s extensive research points out that after the United States occupied Afghanistan and Iraq, suicide attacks worldwide rose dramatically - from 300 between 1980 and 2003 to 1,800 from 2004 to 2009. More than 90 percent of the attacks were anti-American. Indirect occupations, in which the United States helps lead an occupation without committing troops, such as in Pakistan, have the same impact as direct occupations and explain the rise of suicide terrorism there, Pape said. The research also showed that civilian casualties during occupations increase suicide terrorism by giving terrorist leaders rallying points to turn local residents against the invading force.
Pape oversees the Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism, the world’s largest academic research project on suicide terrorism, and Feldman is the project’s principal advisor. The CPOST team recently completed a study of more than 2,000 suicide attacks. The team also studied tapes left by suicide bombers and collected other key information, such as their religious backgrounds, methods and number of casualties resulting from the attacks.
The research found that in each of the countries where suicide terrorism flourished, it was used to combat an occupying force. While occupation may sometimes be necessary to achieve immediate foreign policy goals, it does so at the risk of stimulating a suicide terrorist campaign against the occupier’s homeland. This is the dilemma an occupier faces, Feldman noted, since when the threat of occupation was removed, suicide terrorism largely stopped. "
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Comments: 72
When I read a comment like the one that appears above, it reminds me of one of the watershed projections of US foreign power, in terms of its ability to encourage terrorist responses: the US airbase in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Osama bin Laden's home town). That base has been mentioned dozens of times in bin Laden's rants over the years as a violation of Arabian sovereignty. US (and formerly Soviet) hegemony came first. The response followed.
There are those who have their faith and are happy with that. There are those who have their faith but feel if anyone believes differently than they do they either have to convert or destroy them.
You are all the same feathers on the same bird.
And we do have our own homegrown terrorists--Tim McVey comes to mind, Erik Rudolph(Centennial Park bombing)
Hollocaust shooting by the white supremist
The Austin IRS attack with a plane flying into the building.
And, we don't have to run into a mosque....we just bomb them with drones. So what if we hit a camera crew or a wedding instead of terrorists?
We have less terrorism by native free range crazies. We're a lot better off than most other countries. Street gangs take the place of terrorist organizations in our cities. Kids join them for the same reasons kids in third world countries join terrorist groups. It's a kind of family with a clear cut system of rewards and punishments. Complex ethical choices get simplified in the extreme.
I wouldn't be surprised to see a decrease in suicide bombings if we pulled out of Iraq and Afghanistan. The question we need to be asking ourselves is "What are we getting from our current approach to the problem of terrorism?"
All sorts of wolves in sheep's clothing, false flag, propagandist games are going on, and the purpose is to foment distrust and discord between (and of) Christians and Muslims. Naturally one is going to bump into seemingly contradictory connections like the CIA and bin Laden, and the Cordoba Initiative that is spearheading the Ground Zero mosque (as your recent article explored), and the whole bipolar-esque drive to both promote the concept that Americans need to learn about Islam so they can trust it . . ; and to justify endless wars and occupations, extensive police state style domestic measures, and ever increasing secrecy of government, based on the notion that there is a great Islamic threat.
And I think it's the same basic deal with our major political Parties; Pit them against each other, and discredit them both, and in turn the whole concept of Constitutionally based rule by the people. Got to destroy faith in the "sacred" documents which present problems for the would-be gods of the earth, so they can lock their power up . . Convince the populace that we need a "Big Brother" style, beneficent totalitarian one world Government, to keep us from harming ourselves .
Bombing, invading, and occupying Muslim counties is about as lame of a way to oppose "Islamic radicalization" as I can imagine. Would it be rational to think some foreign power doing that in Wisconsin, would be a good way to oppose American radicalization? Is not such behavior just the sort of thing that will facilitate more radicalization, in any people?
All of Islam wasn't involved in planning this or flying the planes. It was a few people, and it was a criminal act which should have been dealt with by criminal agencies. Instead it became exploited and used as an excuse to use our high tech military to, what? Fight an enemy with no army, navy, air force, headquarters, or even physical geography?
Islam isn't at war with us. It was a few people.
"Apparently you haven't seen the video from Muslim cities across the globe of the people celebrating in the streets and cheering as the towers fell."
Across the world? I want to see some sort of documentation of that. I think you been shocked and awed ; )
I saw a few clips of crowds cheering, and a voice told me they were cheering as the towers fell. Faking such a thing would be easy as pie, and it really makes no sense that crowds were watching the towers fall, in the streets of Palestine . . . does it? You figure they quickly erected some giant screen TVs on some street corners?
"What, were they photoshopped in by the Bush/Cheney Haliburton Video Interceptor? "
One could simply use some video of crowds cheering, and some voice over . . . How hard would that actually be?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tGOt9f3gKk
And sure enough, these folks were prophets indeed . . and the building collapsed in perfect symmetry at virtual free-fall speed, eventually . . There was quite an outbreak of that particular building disease going around that day. Nothing like it EVER happened before, or since . . but on that day, it happened three times.
And yes, I know I wasn't supposed to question what the TV told me, and yes, I know I might be ridiculed for doubting the TV . . . and no, I don't care about the canned mocking, and boasting of vast wisdom imparted through NOT investigating the mountains of blatant evidence easily available to anyone who wishes to look at it, which clearly reveals that the whole day was scripted. I just ain't into that wisdom by omission crap, I'm a man of science and a man of God.
He that answereth a matter before he heareth it,
it is folly and shame unto him.
Ouch !
it is folly and shame unto him.
"Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;"
(Isaiah 5:20)
Terrorism is wrong, and killing of innocent people is wrong, but pretending this was about religion is a complete distraction.
They did it because of our policies. That's what bin-Laden said, and that's what Richard Reed (shoe bomber) said, and that's what many other terrorists have said.
They don't like us meddling in their affairs. Have we done that? Yes.
Have we removed democratically elected leaders and installed dictators who oppress people in foreign lands? Yes.
Do we have military bases (we have more than 800 around the world) in foreign lands where we support leaders who oppress the people? Yes.
Do we fund Israel heavily and provide ultra high tech weaponry that they use to pummel a relatively helpless Palestinian people? Yes - (This is a complex issue, but in simple terms this is the view of the "terrorists.")
Have we illegally invaded and occupied countries which never attacked us? Yes.
Don't even bother with the idea that I hate America and that's why I've mentioned the above. These are reasons that people might be very angry with us, and although there is no excuse for killing innocent people with terrorism, these are the reasons why terrorists do what they do.
Iraq was not approved by the UN, in fact the Sec Gen of the UN called it illegal as did the International Committee of Jurists (worlds foremost authority on international law).
I'm not justifying, I'm explaining why they did it.
Our foreign wars are manufactured by the same interests that have transferred their wealth and investment, their corporations and factories abroad. Our military is used to create markets abroad for our industry and manufacture abroad to serve those larger and expanding foreign markets . GM is profitable manufacturing in China . The 450,000 American GM jobs have shrunk to 50,000. The oil and oil drilling companies have moved their corporate headquarters from the U.S. to Dubai, Zurich , etc. As the U.S.economy and standard of living has declined, wealth has shifted abroad with the support of our tax-payer funded military and its 800 bases , advanced military arms, naval fleets, etc. We seek to acquire the world's resources to make profits for the banks, Wall St and corporations.
"It's not about religion" Follow the money. It's greed . We are persuaded through fear to make unjustified wars. We compete in selling arms to profit corporations. We sell arms to China and other countries that U.S. companies are not allowed to sell to by Congress via Israel, and contract with Israel for essential components of planes, tanks, etc. that are assembled in the U.S. Our Defense Dept has long-term contracts with Israel to develop arms - as a $1 billion contract to design a tank.