What does Daesh hope to gain? Hepburn
For children, suicide bombers are a special hell.
The children are innocents, who don’t create the conditions that supposedly motivate the bombers, are helpless to stop them, and cannot do anything about the ultimate outcome.
Indeed, it seems children are always victims of terror, from horrible acts of violence, such as this week at a rock concert in Manchester where 22 people, including teenagers and an 8-year-old girl, were killed, to all-out wars in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere.
Why do the suicide bombers do it? Why do they target helpless children?
Despite having lived in, worked in and visited the Middle East and the Arab world since the early 1990s, I still cannot figure out what these guys think they will accomplish by blowing themselves up, along with dozens of innocent kids.
Over those years, I witnessed much death, violence, poverty, greed, corruption, hatred, oppression and religious extremism.
I’ve listened to young and old people tell me how every insult and perceived slight affects their personal dignity and the dignity of their family, their ancestors, their tribe, their community and their religion.
And so I understand intellectually the often-stated reasons for such attacks, which is that they are designed specifically to frighten civilians and to wreak havoc on communities.
I’ve also read many of the hundreds, if not thousands, of books and academic papers written about what motivates suicide bombers, from their hatred of American aggression to lack of self- esteem, ethnic persecution, religious intolerance and more. But I still don’t understand. Are they totally crazy or delusional to try to change the world through a single act of blowing themselves up — along with dozens, if not hundreds, of innocent people?
Do they truly believe, as they have been told by their accomplices, that if successful they will have 72 beautiful virgins waiting for them as well as places reserved in paradise for 70 members of their families? Is that why, as survivors of past attacks report, that many suicide bombers were actually smiling moments before they detonated their explosives?
Clearly, there is always an irrational aspect to conflict, but recent terror attacks in Manchester, France and Germany in the past weeks have reached a new level of pointlessness.
It’s not obvious to me what the precise goal of this terror unleashed in the name of Daesh, or ISIS, is — or what exactly is “the cause.”
Other groups — the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and IRA (Irish Republican Army) — at least had clearly stated aims and as these were recognized and acknowledged, non-violent wings were formed to engage in the political process.
But I admit I don’t understand the demands, or how these would be negotiated, or why the suicide bombers think killing 8-year-old girls will advance their goals. So much of this seems to be simply an expression of raw anger, rage and hatred, with the act becoming the end in itself.
A British journalist and friend told me this week that the Manchester bombing has changed much in England. While there are multiple signs in the city and country of calm and co-operation, there is a seething resentment to such attacks that is rarely reported, much like the anger that led to Britain voting last June to leave the European Union.
“I’m now thinking capital punishment for those who commit, aid and abet terror,” my friend admitted. “Little teenage girls met horrible deaths; we need to respond.”
He’s right that we must respond, but we must do so in a manner that is restrained and tempered, that fits with our values, not theirs.
The children killed in Manchester and elsewhere deserve justice. We must bring those who abet and encourage the suicide bombers to account, sending a strong message to others that they cannot plan or commit terrorist acts and escape.
Importantly, though we must understand that Muslims and Arabs are not our enemies. They are as horrified as anyone by suicide attacks committed by terrorists who claim to be inspired by ISIS.
And like them, I keep hoping, naively it seems, that every time we see one of these suicide attacks in the Mideast, Europe and elsewhere that it will be the last one, that sanity will surely prevail.
It never does, though, and the suicide bombers continue to their incomprehensible missions — and more innocent children die.
I don’t understand the demands, or how these would be negotiated, or why the suicide bombers think killing 8-year-old girls will advance their goals