No Connection Between Religion And Suicide Bombers
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--This week, world terrorism expert Robert Pape will share with the FBI the findings of his remarkable study of 462 suicide bombings. He concludes that such acts have little to do with religious extremism and that the West must engage politically to halt the relentless slaughter--

Courtesy Of: The Observer/Guardian
By Robert Pape
Sunday August 6, 2006

Israel has finally conceded that air power alone will not defeat Hizbollah. Over the coming weeks, it will learn that ground power won't work either. The problem is not that the Israelis have insufficient military might, but that they misunderstand the nature of the enemy.

...Evidence of the broad nature of Hizbullah's resistance to Israeli occupation can be seen in the identity of its suicide attackers. Hizbullah conducted a broad campaign of suicide bombings against American, French and Israeli targets from 1982 to 1986. Altogether, these attacks, which included the infamous bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, involved 41 suicide terrorists.

Researching my book, which covered all 462 bombings around the globe, I had colleagues scour Lebanese sources to collect martyr videos, pictures and testimonials and biographies of the Hizbollah bombers.

Of the 41, we identified the names, birth places and other personal data of 38. We were shocked to find that only eight were Islamic fundamentalists; 27 were Arab Socialist Union; three were Christians, including a female secondary school teacher with a college degree. All were born in Lebanon.

What these suicide attackers--and their heirs today--Shared was not a religious or political ideology but simply a commitment to resisting a foreign occupation.

Nearly two decades of Israeli military presence did not root out Hizbollah. The only thing that has proven to end suicide attacks, in Lebanon and elsewhere, is withdrawal by the occupying force.

Previous analyses of suicide terrorism have not had the benefit of a complete survey of all suicide terrorist attacks worldwide. The lack of complete data, together with the fact that many such attacks, including all those against Americans, have been committed by Muslims, has led many in the US to assume that Islamic fundamentalism must be the underlying main cause.

This, in turn, has fuelled a belief of that anti-American terrorism can be stopped only by wholesale transformation of Muslim societies, which helped create public support of the invasion of Iraq.

But study of the phenomenon of suicide terrorism shows that the presumed connection to Islamic fundamentalism is misleading.

There is not the close connection between suicide terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism that many people think.

Rather, what nearly all suicide terrorist campaigns have in common is a specific secular and strategic goal: To compel democracies to withdraw military forces from 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 organisations in recruiting and in other efforts in service of the broader strategic objective.

Most often it is a response to foreign occupation.

Understanding that suicide terrorism is not a product of Islamic fundamentalism has important implications for how the US and its allies should conduct the war on terrorism.

Spreading democracy across the Persian Gulf is not likely to be a panacea as long as foreign troops remain on the Arabian Peninsula.

The obvious solution might well be simply to abandon the region altogether. Isolationism, however, is not possible; America needs a new strategy that pursues its vital interest in oil but does not stimulate the rise of a new generation of suicide terrorists. The same is true of Israel now.

The new Israeli offensive may take ground and destroy weapons, but it has little chance of destroying Hizbollah. Infact, in the wake of the bombings of civilians, the incursion will probably aid Hizbollah's recruiting.

Equally important, Israel's incursion is also squandering the goodwill it had initially earned from so-called moderate Arab states such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia...

...But Israel must take the initiative. Unless it calls off the offensive and accepts a genuine ceasefire, there are likely to be many, many dead Israelis in the coming weeks--And a much stronger Hizbollah.

Note: Robert Pape is professor of political studies at the University of Chicago. His book, "Dying To Win: Why Suicide Terrorists Do It," will be published in the UK by Gibson Square this month.

Source:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1838199,00.html