Just today, a bombing in Moscow killed six and injured over a dozen. And in what is becoming almost a daily occurrance, a bombing in Iraq injured over 60 people, mainly U.S. soldiers.
So are we becoming more accepting of suicide bombings? I won’t say that nobody batted an eyelash – both these events made headline news – but we are no longer shocked to hear of them. And it seems we’re not asking the right questions anymore. Why are so many people in so many parts of the world increasingly willing to blow themselves to bits in order to spread terror, destruction, or hate?
If the tactic of suicide terror is spreading, it’s for one reason: it’s working. Armies can be fought with bigger or stronger armies. Traditional warfare has rules. People who want to live can be reasoned with. But how do you win a war against people who want to die?
I don’t know. But unless some new and good ideas on how to fight suicide bombings start emerging soon, I fear that they will continue to spread. Suicide bombings are no longer just “Israel’s problem”. Very soon they will be everybody’s problem.
Western mentality says that everyone is rational (you can reason with everyone), assumes that everyone wants to pursue wealth, happiness, and/or some sort of growth or even stagnation, and that everyone has some sort of right to live.
Western mentality can’t understand the ‘suicide bomber’ and therefore tries to rationlize that it is some valid tool/means for ‘something’.
Western mentality is easily overcome by terrorism (the school yard bully always gets what he wants, and today’s politicians are yesterdays school yard wimps and regular people who gave in to hte bully rather than confront him).
Terrorism works. Coming to a location nearest to you soon.
Meanwhile, at Bir Zeit University:
“Hamas wins student election race on Israeli bodycount ticket”
“At a debate, the Hamas candidate asked the Fatah candidate: “Hamas activists in this university killed 135 Zionists. How many did Fatah activists from Bir Zeit kill?”
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1071029337514
I read an article(I think in the Globe & Mail and I believe it was by Friedman of the New York Times) a while back predicting just this situation. Basically, the author was suggesting that Israel was the laboratory for a new kind of war tactic (suicide bombings) and the world general reaction would determine how much we would see of it in the future. European countries and the North American left wing accepted suicide bombings as a legimitate and acceptable method of `resistance` and frowned upon Israel fighting back. So it is not surprising that others have decided to copy this method and I fear that the worst is yet to come.