The Logic and Strategy of Suicide Terrorism

[Lemur]

Fascinating speech linked here, which essentially makes the following point:

In contrast to the popular assertions that terrorists "hate freedom" or want to build a 21st century Caliphate, Pape documents the true driver of suicide attacks: to compel a democracy to remove combat forces from territory the terrorists prize and/or want to liberate. It is not primarily a function of Muslim extremism, even if Muslim terrorists have embraced the tactic. [...]

This doesn't mean that terrorists don't despise Western values or don't, in their minds, hope to restore Islamic rule, it just means that those things don't matter nearly as much as is presumed and don't figure centrally into the history of suicide violence.

I'd embed the video, but our new board software is quite picky about what it will accept. Old-timey link to video, just like they had in grandpappy's day.