The Logic of the Suicide Bomber

War Nerd Gary Brecher, over at The Exile, has written an excellent article about criticisms of suicide bombers. He basically argues that people think Muslims are crazy for being suicide bombers only because we cannot imagine dieing for some poor neighborhood in Gaza City or Basra. But Europeans have no problem dieing for a cause.

"Normal military service in a 19th-century army at war was pretty close to wearing a suicide vest anyway. Fredericksburg, if you were a Federal; Pickett's Charge, if you were a Reb; those were pretty much suicide missions. And the death you could expect was a million times scarier than the one a modern suicide bomber gets. An Iraqi "martyr" can count on instant, painless death. They usually find the bomber's head totally popped off the body--that's how they ID the bomber. So it's basically death by beheading, and it's worth remembering that beheading used to be a privilege in Europe, the honorable death they reserved for VIPs."

I was just cued into Gary Brecher by Demid recently, and I must say that I am impressed. The guy looks like Dwight Shrute, but he argues like a cross between Steven Levitt and Tyler Durden. Good Stuff.