The Psychology Behind Suicide Bombing - no comments

An excellent article from James Hamilton on what (as far we ever can know) drives people to, in many cases, strap on explosives and detonate themselves in a crowded place. Why suicide? Why does it so often seem to be young, relatively well-educated, men? Can we ever really understand, and is there really an argument to win? If not, how can suicide bombing be stopped? Just to cull from the last paragraph:

What we have seen in so much western analysis of terror has been a determination that, in some way, the terrorists' thought shared roots with our own. Because some of us felt anger at - the occupied territories, Iraq, Afghanistan - they must feel the same anger in the same way, and this assumption has been misleadingly presented as an attempt at cross-cultural understanding. And what might mollify us - a Kerry election victory, withdrawal of the troops, the return of occupied land, Kyoto, the peeling back of globalisation - must therefore mollify them; I doubt, very sincerely, that it is this way even in the vaguest, most shadowy form.

I'm glad that we're at least able to discuss some of these 'root causes' of suicide bombing, without a stale debate about poverty and Israeli security forces, the similarly lifeless one about use of the terms "terrorist" and "bomber" (the week's hot topic), and without (hopefully) appearing to tolerate or excuse the actions of the bombers.