Police Brutality Essay

What Triggers Suicide Bombings?

      Ariva D’Erchi

      Composition II
      Cecelia Munzenmaier
      Hamilton College
      October 30, 2005

      Color Coding Key: …   ..   = thesis/conclusion
                        …   ..   = first topic
                        …   ..   = second topic
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What Triggers Suicide Bombings?
      Are suicide bombers crazy? At first, the answer seems obvious: they must be crazy to blow themselves up and kill innocent people in the process. However, terrorism experts have suggested several rational motives for their actions. Some political scientists believe that terrorists make a tactical choice to use suicide bombings against a stronger enemy (Evans, 2005; Pape, as cited in McConnell, 2005). Other experts argue that suicide terrorism is part of a “cycle of humiliation” fueled by bombers’ desire to strike back at those who have shamed them (Altman, 2005; Haqqani & Kimmage, 2005). Some psychologists have concluded   that suicide bombers are ordinary people who are unlikely to commit violent acts until they identify with a terrorist group (Atran, 2004; Volkan, n.d.).
      Despite the stereotype that   suicide bombers “are both sociopathic and irrational,” (Evans, 2005, p. 1), many political scientists believe that most terrorists are rational people with tactical goals. Evans, for example, argues that terrorism is a strategy. Those who use it want to publicize their cause, draw the enemy into a costly conflict, provoke an overreaction that will make the enemy look foolish or evil, recruit supporters, and prevent compromise. Robert Pape also believes that suicide terrorism has an underlying strategic logic. In his view, “Suicide-terrorist attacks are not driven by religion as much as they are by a clear strategic objective: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from the territory that the...