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How to Defeat Suicide Terrorism

(National Review) Adam Wolfson - In a rigorously researched article for the American Political Science Review, Robert Pape, who teaches political science at the University of Chicago, examined 188 suicide-terrorist attacks in the world from 1980 to 2001. He found that suicide attacks are nearly always deployed as part of a larger political-military campaign by nationalists groups. While the psychology of an individual suicide terrorist might indeed be incomprehensible, this is not the case of those who recruit, train, and outfit him. A suicide terrorist's handlers are not so eager to die, and there is little reason to believe that deterrence - if forcefully and consistently applied - will not prove effective against them. The main reason suicide terrorism is growing is that terrorists have learned that it works. We need to demystify suicide terrorism. The terrorists have their ends. Deny these - make sure that suicide terrorism does not pay - and it will surely lose much of its luster.
2003-09-19 00:00:00
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