DYING TO WIN: THE STRATEGIC LOGIC OF SUICIDE TERRORISM

BY PROF. ROBERT A. PAPE; UNIV. OF CHICAGO
Random House: London King 212 572-2693 loking@randomhouse.com

It seems that hardly a day goes by without some of our troops being killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq. For years, citizens of Israel have dealt with the fear of suicide bombers going off everywhere from on buses to pizza shops. Within our culture, this is a fairly new tactic and one which we in America have a hard time figuring out why people do this and what to do about it. No one, until now, that I know of has really studied suicide terrorism. The author, Robert Pape; an associate Professor of political science, has compiled a database of every suicide bombing and attack around the world from 1980 through 2003- 315 in all. Suicide terrorism however is not new and is not restricted to Islamic fundamentalists. According to Prof. Pape’s research; which is well documented by the way, determines that it is actually the Tamil Tigers; a secular Hindu group in Sri Lanka, who has committed the most acts of suicide terrorism. According to Prof. Pape, his research indicates that suicide terrorist attacks are committed for a secular strategic goal; to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that the terrorists view as their homeland. Pape believes that this is the root cause of suicide bombing and not religious fundamentalism. Prof. Pape also presents a bold new strategy to defeat suicide terrorism. First he recommends that we immediately tighten border and immigration controls. Secondly he recommends that the US should return to a policy of “ offshore balancing” as the best strategy for maintaining our interests in the Persian Gulf without stationing a single combat soldier in the region. This recommendation I am sure will stir much debate. This is the first document I have seen which includes such a total data base on suicide bombers. The fact that suicide bombing is on the rise is clearly obvious. While some literature I have read disagrees with Pape’s conclusions, the impact of suicide bombers is clear. Whether his recommendations to defeat suicide bombers will work is of course speculation at this point. While there may be points that everyone may not agree with, I still feel that this is an excellent book. The book provides an excellent history of suicide bombers and give insight into who the suicide bombers are, who they have targeted and why. The book is full of references to document the data covered. Hopefully, there are lessons there to help us to deal with suicide bombers in the future. There are no easy answers however this is a problem we must tackle.

Elliott Grollman
Maj. (USAR) Ret.
Adjunct Professor