Posted on 07/25/2005 12:01:16 PM PDT by grundle
http://peacejournalism.com/ReadArticle.asp?ArticleID=4066
Ending Suicide Terrorism
by Rep. Ron Paul
More than half of the American people now believe that the Iraqi war has made the U.S. less safe. This is a dramatic shift in sentiment from two years ago. Early support for the war reflected a hope for a safer America, and it was thought to be an appropriate response to the 9/11 attacks. The argument was that the enemy attacked us because of our freedom, our prosperity, and our way of life. It was further argued that it was important to engage the potential terrorists over there rather than here. Many bought this argument and supported the war. That is now changing.
It is virtually impossible to stop determined suicide bombers. Understanding why they sacrifice themselves is crucial to ending what appears to be senseless and irrational. But there is an explanation.
I, like many, have assumed that the driving force behind the suicide attacks was Islamic fundamentalism. Promise of instant entry into paradise as a reward for killing infidels seemed to explain the suicides, a concept that is foreign to our way of thinking. The world's expert on suicide terrorism has convinced me to rethink this simplistic explanation, that terrorism is merely an expression of religious extremism and resentment of a foreign culture.
Robert Pape, author of Dying to Win, explains the strategic logic of suicide terrorism. Pape has collected a database of every suicide terrorist attack between 1980 and 2004, all 462 of them. His conclusions are enlightening and crucial to our understanding the true motivation behind the attacks against Western nations by Islamic terrorists. After his exhaustive study, Pape comes to some very important conclusions.
Religious beliefs are less important than supposed. For instance, the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, a Marxist secular group, are the world's leader in suicide terrorism . The largest Islamic fundamentalist countries have not been responsible for any suicide terrorist attack. None have come from Iran or the Sudan. Until the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Iraq never had a suicide terrorist attack in all of its history. Between 1995 and 2004, the al-Qaeda years, two-thirds of all attacks came from countries where the U.S. had troops stationed. Iraq's suicide missions today are carried out by Iraqi Sunnis and Saudis. Recall, 15 of the 19 participants in the 9/11 attacks were Saudis.
The clincher is this: the strongest motivation, according to Pape, is not religion but rather a desire "to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from the territory the terrorists view as their homeland."
The best news is that if stopping suicide terrorism is a goal we seek, a solution is available to us. Cease the occupation of foreign lands, and the suicide missions will cease. Between 1982 and 1986, there were 41 suicide terrorist attacks in Lebanon. Once the U.S., the French, and Israel withdrew their forces from Lebanon, there were no more attacks. The reason the attacks stop, according to Pape, is that the Osama bin Ladens of the world no longer can inspire potential suicide terrorists despite their continued fanatical religious beliefs.
Pape is convinced after his extensive research that the longer and more extensive the occupation of Muslim territories, the greater the chance of more 9/11-type attacks on the U.S. He is convinced that the terrorists strategically are holding off hitting the U.S. at the present time in an effort to break up the coalition by hitting our European allies. He claims it is just a matter of time if our policies do not change.
It is time for us to consider a strategic reassessment of our policy of foreign interventionism, occupation, and nation-building. It is in our national interest and in the interest of world peace to do so.
Paul's a fool if he believes this.
Not to mention the previous terrorist attacks, such as the embassy bombings and the attack on the Cole. The bottom line here is that they want to convert us to Islam (which means "submission," not "peace"), or kill us. People like Ron Paul are utterly clueless about the true nature of the enemy.
Yes, and giving Germany what she wanted stopped WWII....What a DUmmie......
How about Muslims quit occupying our countries? Stay home where everything is perfect and you won't have to cope with our culture.
This IS a war of ideology. It has never been about our troops or involvement in the Middle East. It hasn't been about that since before the rise of the Ottoman Empire. Either we kill them, or they will kill us. Period. I'd prefer we do it elsewhere.
Bush pushing the PATRIOT Act renewal while leaving the borders open is equally as assinine as Pauls statement above. Plenty of room under the "clueless moron" heading for both of them.
This is pure genius. It is also a solution to West Nile Fever.
Do not occupy any territory that Mosquitoes claim as their own.
And no more shark attacks, just stay out of their damn ocean.
There is a Nobel in this man's future.
'cause their 'bible' tells them so.
When does this loon return from the other Dimension?
What about the ones on 9/11---we weren't in Iraq then, we weren't nation building then....
Details, details, details...stick to the fact : It is and always will be our fault.
Yup. Lets cut an run. Leave the Iraqis with their half-realized government to the tender mercies of the Sunnis, Ba'athist and their allies. Effing brilliant, this guy.
I'm NEVER going to vote Libertarian.
The speech and the study ignore the fact that the US does not seem to be in danger of suicide bombers from the 2 countries that we truly "occupy," Afghanistan and Iraq. On the contrary, most of the citizens of those countries seem grateful that to have had their former rulers cast out.
It's true that we have some troops in Saudi Arabia, home of Bin Laden and the 9/11 attackers (does anyone know how many?), but those are hardly occupation troops.
But if getting our troops out of Iraq is the goal of Islamic terror, clearly the best thing they can do is lay off the violence there and American troops will be gone pretty quickly. Even better, there will probably be a legitimate Islamic republic in place of Saddam's old secular regime.
So I see the motivation of these terrorists elsewhere. An Iraq friendly to the US changes the entire complexion of the Middle East. In particular, it should lessen considerably the influence and breathing space of the terror groups, including Al Qaeda. It's a defeat for them, and a victory for us, their enemy. IMO, that explains most of their desperation, and ironically also explains the desperation of the Democrats and the Left here in America.
Exactly why we are hated, not by Afghanis or Iraqis, or even Iranians, but by Saudis, Egyptians, and Palestinians is more subtle, I guess. IMO, the reason is a mixture of our long friendship with Israel and our general presence there as "infidels."
I can imagine that a terrorist threat may never have existed had we not been involved all these years in the Middle East in search of oil. Oil wealth made these little sandy desert backwaters into wealthy countries capable of financing their hatred and turning it lethal.
Shortly after 911 Ron Paul blamed this on our presence in the Middle East and our foreign policy.
The insurrection in Iraq is led by ex-Baath, ex-secret police, ex-Special Republican Guard, and by Al Qaeda types such as Zarqawi.
The thing to notice is that the suicide bombers are not drawn from those ranks. The Baathists and Qaeda leadership are not looking to martyr themselves, for that they recruit losers from mostly outside the country who can be convinced to join the great jihad. These dufuses are the cannon fodder.
In many cases, the "suicides" have a pal at a distance with cell phone ready to detonate him if he should lose his nerve. So its anyone's guess how many suicides are really "suicides".
Ron Paul almost gets it, but runs out of gas at the finish line. He noticed that suicide bombing in Lebanon ended after the US withdrew. He failed to notice that Lebanon continued to be occupied for another couple of decades after we left, by the Syrians, without any suicide bombers.
This ought to have suggested to someone of keen intellect who was behind the bombings.
Similarly, there weren't any suicide bombings when the Baath ruled Iraq. Amazing. But there are now that the Baath are out of power and want to shoot their way back into the palace, but dare not show their faces anywhere within a mile of a Marine. Thats where the dufuses recruited from Sudan, the West Bank, and other loser-generating countries, earn their pay.
Should the Baath manage to regain power, the slaughter will continue, just as it continued the thirty years they were in power before, the only difference will be that they get to wear their uniforms again. And no need to recruit dummies to wear suicide belts when there is no one shooting back at you and you can go about your business during business hours. I know its hard for Paul to get his mind around this, but Iraq is safer now with a war going on than it was under Baathist rule.
Great post.
He is as wrong on the war as he is on abortion - votes for abortion every time. Why is he a Republican again?
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