Just heard an unusually insightful discussion with Richard Pape and Scott
Horton addressing the often overlooked but major incentives for suicide
terrorism.
www.scotthortonshow.com/2008/10/02/antiwar-radio-robert-a-pape-2/
Robert A. Pape's hypothesis as he describes it in this radio interview is that suicide terrorist attacks are not religiously motivated, with the group using the tactic the most being the secular, Marxist Tamil Tiger rebel group in Sri Lanka, but rather the common denominator of suicide terrorist attacks is that they are used in order to pressure democratic governments to end foreign military presence where it isn't wanted.
This sounds correct to me, except for the "foreign" part. As Scott Horton points out in one of his questions for his guest, many suicide terrorist attacks in Iraq are made by people from Syria, Saudi Arabia, etc. I don't think the Sri Lankan government forces consider themselves to be "foreign" occupiers -- the war being fought is against secessionists *in* Sri Lanka. I think the word "foreign" is ultimately an artificial distinction, and Pape's thesis is more accurate if he leaves it out.
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))