I know! Let's make a law that makes suicide bombing illegal! ..................
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.
This guy is a low life piece of work this Paul.
Where to begin? The suicide bombers are 99% not Afghans or Iraqis. Why do they bomb? Because of their perceived unity in sharing a religion with Afghans and Iraqis. It's about religion.
I often find myself in agreement with Rep. Paul, but not this time... his view betrays a very narrow, dated, and incomplete understanding of the problem. The Tamil Tigers, for example, have long since eschewed suicide attacks.
But of course the core of the problem is that the enemy considers the whole world its territory, and that there is nowhere to retreat to that is safe from their depredataions.
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 .
Marxism is a religion - and one which is not dissimilar in its official tactics from Islam. Many Marxist movements have embraced Islam in the past and vice versa.
The largest Islamic fundamentalist countries have not been responsible for any suicide terrorist attack.
A meaningless statement and a false one. The second largest Muslim nation in population, Indonesia, had a doozy in Bali. Suicide attacks have occurred in Pakistan as well - and Pakistan is the largest Muslim nation. Saudi Arabia, large in both size and population, has also had suicide attacks. As has Egypt, with more Muslims than Saudi Arabia. As has Algeria, another major Muslim country.
None have come from Iran or the Sudan.
Another lie. Iran has sponsored numerous suicide attacks through Hezbollah.
Until the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Iraq never had a suicide terrorist attack in all of its history.
Suicide attacks came into currency in the 1980s. Iraq was ruled by a Islamic dictator from the 1970s until the US invasion. There were no moderate, pro-Western governments to fight against.
Between 1995 and 2004, the al-Qaeda years, two-thirds of all attacks came from countries where the U.S. had troops stationed.
How many suicide bombers came from South Korea? Japan? Germany? Cuba? Haiti? American troops are stationed in all these places - perhaps Islam may have something to do with it after all?
But no, these attacks are not religious - it's just that 90% of them happen to be fanatical Muslims by coincidence.
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.
And Saudis are known for . . . their particularly fanatical brand of Islam.
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."
In other words, despite the fact that the governments of certain nations have invited US troops to their soil, there is a group of lunatics - who are all fanatical Muslims but religion has nothing to do with it - in certain countries - all of which are Muslim countries but religion has nothing to do with it - who are willing to do crazy things to dispute their own governments' policies.
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. ,p>Translation: allow the lunatics to dictate our foreign policy to us, abdicate our sovereignty to a fanatical Muslim madman - whose religion, by the way, has nothing to do with it, and all will be well.
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.
Of course, pape's database tells him this. Too bad it didn't tell him that his favorite Tamil Tigers, the one alleged counterexample he can find to the Muslim nature of this terror, have declared war on their own government in a land blissfully free of American troops or foreign occupation of any kind.
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.
I used to think that Ron Paul, despite his quirks, was not a stupid or a gullible man, but simply someone who enjoyed being a gadfly to satisfy his own ego.
I was wrong. Only a moron could absorb Pape's tendentious analysis whole.
The best way to deter suicide bombings or other terrorist acts...let them know the Russian method of dealing with terrorists. The terrorist families, friends all catch it with them. Brutal, but effective.
Paul is a libertarian.
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.
When does this loon return from the other Dimension?
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.
He is as wrong on the war as he is on abortion - votes for abortion every time. Why is he a Republican again?