Today in the world suicide bombings has become the most dangerous and horrific form of terrorism. A suicide attack is an attack that intends to kill others and inflict massive damage, at the same time the attacker intends to die while performing this act. According to Scott Atran 80 percent of suicide attacks after 1968 occurred after the 9/11 attacks, and he found that there’s popular support in the Middle East for these types of attacks. Modern terrorist organizations favor this form of attack because it is very inexpensive and very easy to perform. Suicide bombings are meant to be a social expression where an individual is sacrificing their life for a particular cause. This post will explore the phenomenon of suicide attacks and its role in modern society.
Modern suicide attacks as a social and political tool can be traced back to the assassination of Czar Alexander II of Russia in 1881. While Czar Alexander II was driving he was mortally wounded by a grenade that was hand-made which led to his death. It was later revealed that the Czar was killed by a member of Narodnaya Volya a group that was against the Czar’s regime while intentionally exploding the bomb during the attack. Another major group in the evolution of suicide attacks has been the use of Japanese Kamikaze suicide bombers during World War II. The Japanese kamikaze bombers would fly their aircrafts into Allied military targets in order to cause damage and also as a result end their life. As World War II continued the Japanese became desperate the acts of kamikaze bombers became formal and ritualistic, where their aircrafts were loaded with explosives whose specific task was a suicide mission. There was social support by the Japanese people due to their cultural history, in which honorable suicide was part of samurai duty. During the Battle of Berlin the Lutwaffe flew self-sacrifice missions against the Soviet Union crashing into their bridges. The end result of this mission was the Luftwaffe lost 35 pilots and aircrafts. These significant events in history shows that as time have gone by different countries and terrorist organizations have turned to suicide attacks as a way to explain their social purpose. Many individuals have sacrificed their life in order to show their eternal dedication to what they are believe and are fighting for.
According to the Washington Quarterly the rate of suicide attacks is rapidly rising across the globe. During 2000-2004 there were 472 suicide attacks in 22 countries, killing more than 7,000 and wounding thousands of people. Most modern suicide attacks have been carried out by Islamist groups claiming Jihad or a religious motivation. According Bruce Hoffman a terrorism analyst most of the suicide attacks that occurred after the 9/11 attacks 31 of them were attacks carried out by followers of the Jihad. It is also note in the Washington Quarterly that suicide attacks keep rising as the years go by and becoming deadly. For example Iraq has an average of one attack per day, according to some military reports. It is also believed that most suicide attacks are not only because of religious motivation but also because of foreign occupation. Robert Pape believes that, “The rise in attacks correlates with U.S. Military occupation of countries whose governments tend to be authoritarian and unresponsive to popular demands.” This idea that a majority of suicide attacks is a way to tell modern democracy particularly the US to withdraw their military forces from their homeland. Since 2004-2006 there have been 18 countries that have had suicide attacks most of them being US allies linked to undemocratic regimes such as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, and Egypt.
From all these facts I would have to say that the fact that suicide attacks continue to rise without any sign of decline is something that we all have to be worried about worldwide. The main issue may be as suggested by some scholars is the occupation of other countries homeland by democratic countries such as the US. For many of these suicide bombers like the Japanese kamikaze the act of sacrificing one’s life for a cause is in itself very honorable. Suicide attacks are acts of terror in the eyes of the Western world, while as in the eyes of the one committing the act they may be fighting against the monopolization of Western way of life and beliefs. Maybe if democratic countries such as the US were to withdraw from certain territories in the Middle East maybe there will be a slight decline in suicide attacks. But the other conflict that exists is that some of these attacks are being carried out by the actual citizens of these attacked territories. Their reason too might be a rebellion against their current political regime because of the strict laws and conflict between religious beliefs. I feel that suicide attacks might be a reaction to democratic countries trying to spread their beliefs and values and also an act of rebellion against their own regime on a religious basis. As we can see there is no singular reason of why suicide attacks occur, and for this reason it will continue to remain a phenomenon.
Websites:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/why-the-bombers-are-so-angry-at-us/2005/07/22/1121539145036.html
http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/usscole/jir001020_1_n.shtml
http://www.israelinsider.com/channels/security/articles/sec_0049.htm
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/holy/cron/
