Suicide Terrorism

http://www.amconmag.com/2005_07_18/article.html

The Logic of Suicide Terrorism: It's the Occupation, not the Fundamentalism

In this article, Robert Pape of the University of Chicago asserts that suicide terror is driven not by Islamic Fundamentalism, but by terrorist's wish to rid their homelands of foreign forces. His argument does not persuade me because while occupation may be the chief concern that causes terrorists to commit acts of violence, the motivation to perfrom suicide terror may be influenced by many different grievances terrorist groups have against those people occupying their homelands. When considering why a group might be opposed to foreign occupation, differences in religion would defintely be something to consider. Such differneces could drive individuals to perform acts of suicide terror in the hopes of liberating the homeland. I would be interested in finding out what others think about this article. It is a quick and interesting read, and it does have some good points.