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I tried to define suicide bombing objectively, as well as to present two of the main ethical appraisals of it. A difficulty in discussing anything to do with "terrorism" is, of course, that many advocates persuasively maintain that their side isn't guilty of terrorism: their targets are legitimate, the women and children aren't innocent, and so forth.

It can be difficult to refute such arguments, while consistently justifying the military bombing of cities in declared war: e.g., Dresden, Hiroshima.

I don't think I have a handle on the issue. I just yearn for a world where no one would ever want to kill anyone!!! Ed Poor

IMHO the specific act of suicide bombing is inherently neither terrorist nor non-terrorist. It is only one tactic among many others. The specific choice of target determines its terrorist nature. Eclecticology

I tried to add some reasons to suicide bombings as I don't think "they are Arabs" is enough really :-) It's badly written and probably not NPOV so feel welcome to edit it. Then it struck me, after watching a documentary about firearms in USA, are the suicide massacres in some way similar to suicide bombings? You know where someone shoots 1 - 2 dozen people and then commits suicide before the police comes. Like the Columbine (sp?) Highschool massacre and so on. --BL

I worry about the focus on Islamic or Arab in this article. Even if true (and I am not immediatley convinced it is) I would think that the description should not include ethnic linkages. After the description, a list of groups engaging in suicide bombing (and notes on cynide capisuls), and perhaps a note that most suicide attacts are Arab or Islamic (assuming it's true) with a brief note of explination - such as currently large number of Islamic people feel that their religion, values, and countries are under attack by the west, and are unable to respond in any other way. I note that Islam has very strong prohibitions against suicide, this probably should also be covered. - Karl

If Palestinian homicide bombers were to concentrate on military targets such as troop concentrations, etc., it would be harder to criticize their actions. I'm not suggesting Israel and it's leaders have done nothing wrong. In fact I'll come straight out and say that some major government figures in Israel deliberately provoke matters for their own political ends despite the human costs on both sides. But after assuring you all I favor neither Arab nor Jew initially, I have to say based on what I see both sides doing I have no choice but to support the Israeli position more than the Palestinian side. Every day the Palestinan "leadership" proves it is completely incapable of leading. It cannot be trusted and, as much as I'd like to find out otherwise, is clearly a major root of the problem. Only when a new breed of Palestinian comes forward into leadership role and completely renounces terrorism and dedicate themselves to working with Israel towards the common good for both people will a solution to this mess be possible. This is not to say Israel will not have to make concessions to obtain peace as well. They must. They have, in fact. The concessions, more than many felt were reasonable, were refused for political reasons by Arafat and other Palestinians who felt they could use terrorism to gain more personal power.

I think I have been misunderstood. The article clearly states that suicide bombing is not accepted by most countries. I am recommending that as an addition, the quote from the Koran on prohibition against suicide also be added. In general, it should be quite clear that suicide bombing is not considered generally acceptable. This too can be stated. It IS important to say why people engange in suicide bombing. Given the rather strong comdemnation of it in the general description, no rebuttal is necessary. If one group is singled out, then the reasons that this group engages in suicide bombing is important. I don't think that the truth of these reasons needs to be debated, rather when listing the reasons, comments like the Palistinian people believe that ... An additional section on the results of suicide bombing, ie escellating violence, terroristic responsees by the victim countries, demonization, evaporation of public support... (again without justifications... with the obvious result of escelating results until someone backs down (Sira Lanka might be a good example here.)Karl

On a completely different note: it is true that the palistinian people need nelson mandella and desmond tutu; and instead they got Arafat.