TERRORISM: She wanted to be a suicide bomber since she was 16.

the kids grow up learning that it is good to blow yourself up to kill others....what is this world coming to

I read today in the Westchester paper that this bomber had no choice in the matter...well she did have a CHOICE...it was , BE MURDERED or suicide bomb.
Sooooooo, she took the suicide punishment for her infidelity. Her sweetheart strapped her up with explosives and her lovin' husband drover her to the site. I am SO GLAD that her country gave her a chance to restore her families honor. They could have just put a bullet in her head, and left it at that....
Swell,
Kris

Compare and contrast:

The passengers of the flight which crashed in Pennsylvania did not allow themselves to be volunteered to be a weapon of murder.

EXCELLENT article on suicide bombers. Eye-opening and well written. I urge you to read it.

www.counterpunch.org...

"Suicide Bombers
The Clash of Absurdities
By JOE QUANDT

She hesitates at the doorway of the cafe, suddenly conscious of the thing's weight. Trained to appear casual, she sits down at a table in the center of the room. The waiter takes her order; she is hardly aware of speaking to him. She tries not to look at the people seated around her in the cafe.

She believes that what she is about to do has a purpose, that it will give her existence meaning.

How many of us, if we believed irrefutably that we could make a lasting contribution to society, would not do so? To be an inspiration to those left behind, even as we take our own final leave? To avenge the innocent dead?

As if the dead cared about revenge.

There are several soldiers, a few families, some men in suits. A baby is crying. The blood pounding in her ears creates a high-pitched ringing, erasing all the familiar sounds of a cafe at lunchtime: silverware tinkling, laughter, music. Her mind alternates between a blinding, kaleidoscopic rush of thoughts and...

...the single, inescapable fact that in a few moments her life will be over.

The outrage that the victims, their families, and the public share often stems from the misperception that the bomber has gotten away with something. A thief may get away with something. A suicide bomber gets away with literally nothing.

She thinks of her family...what the room will soon look like...how she will be remembered. The picture of her that the family will carry through the streets before installing it in a place of honor...the money that she may earn for them by this act... the sound of her own name on weeping lips...her best friend. She starts to pray, her finger on the trigger, as a single bead of sweat rolls down her temple.

Our fascination with the individuals who execute these tragedies is long withered. Years ago, they had names, faces. But the carnal saga of the suicide bomber has dulled any flicker of empathy most Americans might have ever felt for their causes. Newspaper accounts of their deeds omit anything of the personal. They no longer have names.

In Palestine, where the historical enactment of this scene has now played through its second generation, the shuhada have become a cult. Many Middle Eastern nations grant stipends to the families of these "martyrs" (so called because the Quran expressly forbids suicide). Framed pictures of the deceased are paraded through the streets before taking their place in homes and in bizarre public galleries. Bombers attain a legendary status, proportionate, of course, to the havoc they wreak. An attitude of pride in their "accomplishments" is promoted among children. These rituals are well on their way to becoming as institutionalized as betrothals and harvest seasons."

More at the link.

martyrs" (so called because the Quran expressly forbids suicide).

That's right. It does.

Why then do the leaders portray the homicide bombers as martyrs who are going to heaven etc. Interesting isn't it? Sounds to me like a simple case of people using religion to acheive their own ends.

I had to do this i couldnt resist

I love the way people use the usual to condemn the unusual, to draw a defining line between what is acceptable and what is not, when, at the same time, they would be prepared to use the unusual to defeat the usual, whatever it is, if it was threatening. These arguments would be a field day for Jung and Freud. There are so many arguments in places like this in which the same people rile against a 'body' or an 'issue' and then, when it is personified, suddenly find themselves for it. Most of the time without realising it. Says a lot about human conditioning.

[Edited on 20-1-2004 by kegs]