What motivates suicide bombers in Iraq and around the world? Can
winning the hearts and minds of local populations stop them? Will
the phenomenon spread to the United States? These vital questions
are at the heart of this important book. Mia Bloom examines the
use, strategies, successes, and failures of suicide bombing in
Asia, the Middle East, and Europe and assesses the effectiveness of
government responses. She argues that in many instances the efforts
of Israel, Russia, and the United States in Iraq have failed to
deter terrorism and suicide bombings. Bloom also considers how
terrorist groups learn from one another, how they respond to
counterterror tactics, the financing of terrorism, and the role of
suicide attacks against the backdrop of larger ethnic and political
conflicts.
"Dying to Kill" begins with a review of the long history of
terrorism, from ancient times to modernity, from the Japanese
Kamikazes during World War II, to the Palestinian, Tamil, Iraqi,
and Chechen terrorists of today. Bloom explores how suicide terror
is used to achieve the goals of terrorist groups: to instill public
fear, attract international news coverage, gain support for their
cause, and create solidarity or competition between disparate
terrorist organizations. She contends that it is often social and
political motivations rather than inherently religious ones that
inspire suicide bombers. In her chapter focusing on the increasing
number of women suicide bombers and terrorists, Bloom examines Sri
Lanka, where 33 percent of bombers have been women; Turkey, where
the PKK used women feigning pregnancy as bombers; and the role of
the Black Widows in the Chechen struggle against Moscow.
The motives of individuals, whether religious or nationalist,
are important but the larger question is, what external factors
make it possible for suicide terrorism to flourish? Bloom describes
these conditions and develops a theory of why terrorist tactics
work in some instances and fail in others.
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