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blade
Joined: 30 Jun 2007
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 Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 10:36 pm Post subject: US just doesn't get it about motivation for suicide attacks |
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Excellent article:
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Wed, Jan 13, 2010
OPINION: Barack Obama says US intelligence fails to �connect the dots� to prevent terror attacks. America itself fails to connect the dots that help explain motive, writes LARA MARLOWE
IN AMERICA, 2010 has been dominated so far by the aftermath of the failed Christmas Day bombing of Northwest Airlines flight 253. Amid the flurry of recriminations and speeches, it was reported that a state department official �misspelled� the name of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian who attempted to bring down the aircraft with explosives sewn into his underwear, thus preventing data concerning him and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula from being correlated.
The story fed the narrative of bureaucratic ineptitude, and received wide coverage. No one pointed out that there is no correct spelling of Arabic names transliterated into English. Umar is the same as Omar, and both spellings are correct, just as Mohamed can be written several ways.
This footnote to the failed suicide bombing was symptomatic of a wider breakdown in understanding, as if the collective American psyche was pre-programmed by rigid mental software not to comprehend.
Any cop will tell you that the first thing one searches for when investigating a crime is a motive. The fact that two well-educated young men � Abdulmutallab the Nigerian and Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, a Jordanian � were ready to turn themselves into human bombs in the hope of killing Americans, just five days apart, ought to make us ask why. Abdulmutallab (23) is from a rich family and studied engineering at University College London. Balawi (32) was a medical doctor with a Turkish wife and two young daughters. On December 30th, he dealt the worst blow to the CIA in 27 years by killing seven agents at its base in Khost, Afghanistan.
continue reading....http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2010/0113/1224262210068.html |
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bacasper
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 8:30 am Post subject: |
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We never cared about motivation before. Of course, I think we should, but no one ever listens to me.
Why should the rest start caring now? |
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blade
Joined: 30 Jun 2007
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| Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 3:07 pm Post subject: |
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| bacasper wrote: |
We never cared about motivation before. Of course, I think we should, but no one ever listens to me.
Why should the rest start caring now? |
Hope springs eternal I suppose. |
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TheUrbanMyth
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired
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| Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 5:10 pm Post subject: |
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Why should we care about motivation?
There's no justification for suicide attacks anyway so motivation is irrelevant.
Besides which if it wasn't one thing, it would be another. If the U.S was to pull out entirely out of all other nations and become isolationist, they'd be attacked for not helping. |
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blade
Joined: 30 Jun 2007
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| Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 5:35 pm Post subject: |
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| TheUrbanMyth wrote: |
Why should we care about motivation?
There's no justification for suicide attacks anyway so motivation is irrelevant.
Besides which if it wasn't one thing, it would be another. If the U.S was to pull out entirely out of all other nations and become isolationist, they'd be attacked for not helping. |
UrbanTwit go away. You've nothing worth while to add so you may as well go back under your bridge and see you can't snare yourself a couple of billy goats or what not. |
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conrad2
Joined: 05 Nov 2009
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| Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 5:39 pm Post subject: |
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| blade wrote: |
| TheUrbanMyth wrote: |
Why should we care about motivation?
There's no justification for suicide attacks anyway so motivation is irrelevant.
Besides which if it wasn't one thing, it would be another. If the U.S was to pull out entirely out of all other nations and become isolationist, they'd be attacked for not helping. |
UrbanTwit go away. You've nothing worth while to add so you may as well go back under your bridge and see you can't snare yourself a couple of billy goats or what not. |
Urban Myth is right on the money. What have you "added" to this thread? |
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TheUrbanMyth
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired
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| Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 5:52 pm Post subject: |
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| blade wrote: |
| TheUrbanMyth wrote: |
Why should we care about motivation?
There's no justification for suicide attacks anyway so motivation is irrelevant.
Besides which if it wasn't one thing, it would be another. If the U.S was to pull out entirely out of all other nations and become isolationist, they'd be attacked for not helping. |
UrbanTwit go away. You've nothing worth while to add so you may as well go back under your bridge and see you can't snare yourself a couple of billy goats or what not. |
Perhaps if you spent more time reading and less time violating the TOS, you might have understood what I was getting at.
There is no justification for outright murder. NONE. Are you saying you disagree and think that some suicide bomber walking into a marketplace and blowing innocent women and children apart is fine and dandy?
Really?
As far as I am concerned the motivation for this is irrelevant as there is no justification for that action...which has and continues to happen in Iraq for one.
Now you can debate this point which is on-topic or you can just admit you aren't capable of/interested in participating in a mature, adult debate. |
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VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
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| Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 6:27 pm Post subject: |
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| the difference between motivation and justification is lost on some people |
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thecount
Joined: 10 Nov 2009
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| Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 7:03 pm Post subject: |
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| VanIslander wrote: |
| the difference between motivation and justification is lost on some people |
Yes. Terrorists.
I mean, seriously, people.
The problem here is not a grievance. The problem here is the response.
Even if they had the most sensible reasons in the world (and I do not consider "The US is the Great Satan" to be among such a category), would you reward (and further encourage) such actions by caving into demands written in blood and ash? |
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bacasper
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 8:13 am Post subject: |
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| VanIslander wrote: |
| the difference between motivation and justification is lost on some people |
Ain't that the truth!
Obviously, there is an excellent reason to determine motivation. If one were truly interested in preventing future attacks upon the innocent, one would want to learn motivation in order to determine how to optimally neutralize it. |
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NovaKart
Joined: 18 Nov 2009
Location: Iraq
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| Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 9:36 am Post subject: |
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| Even if we understand the motivation is there any way to change that motivation without changing America's entire policy in the Middle East? |
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TheUrbanMyth
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired
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| Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 5:00 pm Post subject: |
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| VanIslander wrote: |
| the difference between motivation and justification is lost on some people |
So it would seem as some people think that the motivation is justification for the act itself. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 6:02 pm Post subject: |
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The US has ample reason to change its policies in the Middle East without having to take any cues from suicide bombers.
I'd love to hear the motivation for the Bombay bombers; India's drawback from war with Pakistan is rewarded with violent attacks.
Not to mention all the innocents killed in these attacks. I mean, Blade, your point is wrong even on a moral level. |
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Old Gil
Joined: 26 Sep 2009
Location: Got out! olleh!
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| Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 6:54 pm Post subject: |
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The US presence in the Middle East and its support for Israel is why we have terrorist attacks. If you look at every other terrorist act in teh world, it's neighbors or locals attacking neighbors or locals. India, Bali, Spain, London, the list goes on and on. They are attacks carried out by locals or regional neighbors in the locality or region where they live.
The US is special b/c our foreign policy is especially intrusive, and necessarily so. |
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conrad2
Joined: 05 Nov 2009
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| Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 8:05 pm Post subject: |
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| Old Gil wrote: |
The US presence in the Middle East and its support for Israel is why we have terrorist attacks. If you look at every other terrorist act in teh world, it's neighbors or locals attacking neighbors or locals. India, Bali, Spain, London, the list goes on and on. They are attacks carried out by locals or regional neighbors in the locality or region where they live.
The US is special b/c our foreign policy is especially intrusive, and necessarily so. |
The latest attack was carried out by a Nigerian. Nigeria is not in the Middle East. In Bali, Indonesians attacked Australians mainly. Indonesia is not in the Middle East. |
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