"Since suicide terrorism is mainly a response to foreign occupation and not Islamic fundamentalism, the use of heavy military force to transform Muslim societies over there, if you would, is only likely to increase the number of suicide terrorists coming at us." - Robert A. Pape, world authority on what causes suicide terrorism
What if a major tool for changing US foreign policy was within our reach but we weren't aware of it ?
What if we could make a powerful, empirical case that the Bush Administration's Mideast policy, especially in Iraq, was making as less safe ?
What if we have Department of Defense research that demonstrated that ?
What if 10% of our representatives on Capital Hill plus teams of analysts at the DoD and the NSA had already been briefed, at length, on that research ?
What if it were widely known in US government that the US approach in Iraq is probably feeding international terrorism and raising chances of terrorist attacks in the US ?
What if much of the national discourse, on how to reduce terrorism and make American more safe, were based on false premises and we could prove it ?
According to John McCain, America is at war with "radical Islamic extremism" in a struggle he says could last fifty, a hundred or even a thousand years. If that sounds absurd (and it is) what's even more absurd is that we on the left have allowed McCain to get away with such talk by failing to publicize already existing research which shows that John McCain's approach to terrorism would probably increase international terrorism and make America less safe.
Much of discussion on the "War on Terror" has come to be dominated by claims that Islam is an inherently violent and expansionary religion bent on world domination and that claim is rooted in an alleged association between Islam and suicide terrorism. That argumentative line dominated the Republican candidate's debates and it colors much of the public discourse on how to cope with international terrorism.
And, it's wrong.
action items:
Two simple & quick things you can do help promote Rober A. Pape's work, if you think it's as important as I do: vote up links to my story on Digg and Buzzflash and Reddit. That would be a good start. thanks.
A new body of research by University of Chicago researcher Robert A. Pape, based on the world's largest database on suicide terrorist incidents compiled by Pape and teams of U. Chicago grad students and funded in part by the US Department of Defense, shows that the current US approach to "combating" terrorism is very likely increasing the incidence of terrorism worldwide and also increasing chances of terrorist attacks within the domestic US and, what's even more startling is that many people in US government have been briefed on this research.
Arguably, the Bush Administration knows its Mideast policies, and especially in Iraq, are increasing terrorism and in effect aiding Al Qaeda. Robert A. Pape says he briefed close to 10% of the US Senate and House as well as analysts at the DoD and the Pentagon on his research findings... back in 2005. Pape is the world expert on what motivates acts of suicide terrorism.
But, since 2005 Robert Pape's research and his story have languished and that cannot stand. Pape's story came out in 2005 but American political progressives opposed to war largely missed the critical importance of Pape's work and we need to put it back on the national agenda. Here's how you can help.
First, read my short Talk To Action piece on this.
If you're as convinced as I am that US foreign policy must recognize Pape's research then, please, help me promote it. Two simple things you can do:
Second, help me promote Pape's work - to give it the prominence it deserves. To start, you can vote up links to my story on Digg and Buzzflash and Reddit. That would be a huge help.
After the September 11, 2001 attacks, in a groundbreaking effort to understand the forces driving suicide terrorism which was partly funded by the US Department of Defense, Robert A. Pape of the University of Chicago dropped his prior research, into the effective uses of air power in warfare, and began to amass what became the world's largest database on suicide terrorism. Pape wrote up his conclusions, on what drives such acts, in a 2005 book, "Dying To Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism". Pape says he has briefed "40 out of 535" of the senators and representatives on Capitol Hill, as well as members of the Department of Defense and The NSA on his conclusion: religion is not the primary cause of suicide terrorism, nationalism is.
In an astounding February 2006 interview, Robert Pape even explains why Al Qaeda has not attacked the domestic United States; according to an Al Qaeda strategy document captured by Norwegian intelligence, says Pape, Al Qaeda leaders decided to attack allies of the US with troops in Iraq in order to peel away international military support for the US presence in that country. So, Al Qaeda initiated terrorist attacks in Britain and Spain and that strategy conforms exactly with Pape's analysis on the key reason for suicide terrorism -
According to Pape:
"Islamic fundamentalism is not as closely associated with suicide terrorism as many people think. The world leader in suicide terrorism is a group that you may not be familiar with: the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka.
This is a Marxist group, a completely secular group that draws from the Hindu families of the Tamil regions of the country. They invented the famous suicide vest for their suicide assassination of Rajiv Ghandi in May 1991. The Palestinians got the idea of the suicide vest from the Tamil Tigers...
The central fact is that overwhelmingly suicide-terrorist attacks are not driven by religion as much as they are by a clear strategic objective: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from the territory that the terrorists view as their homeland. From Lebanon to Sri Lanka to Chechnya to Kashmir to the West Bank, every major suicide-terrorist campaign--over 95 percent of all the incidents--has had as its central objective to compel a democratic state to withdraw...
Since suicide terrorism is mainly a response to foreign occupation and not Islamic fundamentalism, the use of heavy military force to transform Muslim societies over there, if you would, is only likely to increase the number of suicide terrorists coming at us."
Note: another researcher who studies the causes of suicide terrorism is Mia Bloom. Bloom credits Robert Pape, in her book "Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror", for his assistance. Bloom and Pape have done media appearances together, as in this 2005 NPR segment.