Submitted by Friedman, Mar 28, 2007 00:16

I haven't read Pape's book, but I read some of his articles in left-wing newspapers. His position is typical of the libertarian and realist school of thought at the University in Chicago.

Pape has brought some cases of suicide bombings in Sri Lanka, and the Japanese Kamikaze fighters may also be classified as suicide bombers. He is also right that Muslim suicide bombers are trying to defeat an occupying western power. What he misses is that fundamentalist Islamist ideology holds that all of Israel from the Jordan to the Mediterranean is "occupied." Therefore, until they accept Israel's existence, they will continue to attempt to "redeem" it through suicide bombings. Similarly, Sunnis don't view Shiites as real Muslims and thus as usurpers, and radical Shiites feel they should have control over all of Baghdad and still resent the Sunnis' disproportionate power when the Baathists were in rule.

I think Pape's flaw is not noticing the Islamist ideology behind what constitutes an occupation, but he may be right in his view of the motive behind the terrorist.

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