Home » Suicide bombers: explanations vs. excuses

Comments

Suicide bombers: explanations vs. excuses — 7 Comments

  1. Sorry about the anonymity…it’s just too much trouble to register here. Maybe I will someday… Any way, are there Baathists in Iraq who are committing suicide bombing? If so, I REALLY don’t understand why they do it. Doesn’t make sense that it’s religiously motivated…surely they aren’t expecting some after death reward. I’m not presenting an argument…I am asking WHY?

  2. I’m glad that you, as a left-wing liberal, have no truck with such idiocy. Undoubtedly there are other left-wing liberals like you. However, I personally know quite a few who are not, and who seem to buy into this sort of explanation/excuse reasoning. If in my relatively small circle there are people–and believe me, these people are old friends who seem otherwise intelligent and kindly–like this, it is pretty clear that such viewpoints are not confined to just a few journalists. And if you don’t think that journalists have a great deal of influence on the opinions of their readers, I would beg to differ.

  3. There is so much rubbish in the intellectual world I don’t think it’s worth the time considering the arguments of those who would seek to excuse atrocities. That fact that you do think it’s worth the time indicates to me that you either have a lot of time on your hands, or that you believe that such numbskulls are far more numerous and influential than they are. This is the essence of factional disputes – fighting with splinter groups over hare-brained ideas. I suspect you are looking for demon to slay, straw man or no. I consider myself an very left-wing liberal, and I can’t say that anyone I know, respect, or work with has any truck with such idiocy. That fact that some ‘journalists’ may argue in that way is simply an annoying feature of our rather free society.

  4. You misunderstand me if you think that I believe religion itself is the culprit. Religion is merely a tool–for good or ill, as you say. In this case it is most definitely being used for ill. Religion is undoubtedly a powerful force that can be used to manipulate people into performing horrific acts. In this article I’m not seeking to learn the “true” motivation of suicide bombers, I’m seeking to explore the reasoning of those who try to use flawed explanations to create even more flawed excuses.

  5. Your explanations only go one step because you have already decided on your answer. Of course, religion can be a powerful motivation for good or ill – the question is why do people subscribe to religious motivations rather than rational ones? If you want to explain terrorist behavior that is rooted in fundamentalist fanaticism, you have to answer that question. Just saying, “It’s religion, not poverty, dummy!” explains nothing. That’s IF you want to explain, rather than rant on.

    And who or what is this LEFT that you people go on about? They must be a pretty small group, so why do you care about them? As far as I can see, your point of view is riding high in the saddle here in the USA, even before you and others were ‘mugged by reality’ on 9.11. (What were you thinking before 9.11, I wonder?)

  6. Is it because religion is generally of such slight importance to many on the left in their own lives that it’s hard for them to credit its importance in the motivations of others?Funny you should mention this, as I tend to see this as one of the reasons many here in Europe minimize or refuse to acknowledge the very real danger of Islamist terrorism. They have never encountered the “power of faith” as something that would make otherwise reasonable people do things without good reason. I think Americans, particularly those living in the red states, whether they are believers or not, have a visceral reaction to things done in the name of Allah.

    God died in Europe round about WWI. It took WWII and its aftermath to kill God in the UK.

    Anyway, my two cents worth…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

HTML tags allowed in your comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>