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 Dying
To Be Martyrs
The little nuts all want to die...
[by Mac Johnson] 7/27/05
The four
young Britons who blew themselves up on 7/7, killing 52 of
their more normal life-loving neighbors, were not needed as
guidance systems for the bombs. There were no hijacked
planes to pilot, nor any truck bomb to steer.
Neither were
they needed as a disguise for the bombs. The subways
are hardly secure areas behind checkpoints. Anyone may
enter or leave; and the bombs were in bags, not worn as vests.
Had the terrorists left the bombs under the seats and exited,
they would have killed just as many unarmed commuters as they
did by setting them off in their hands. Madrid proved
that.
Contributor
Mac
Johnson
Mac
Johnson is a freelance writer and biologist in Cambridge,
Mass. Mr. Johnson holds a Doctorate in Molecular and
Cellular Biology from Baylor College of Medicine. He
is a frequent opinion contributor to Human
Events Online. His website can be found at macjohnson.com [go
to Johnson index] |
As best I
can tell, there was no tactical necessity for the London bombers
to die.
No, the four
men that died voluntarily in the blasts did so simply because
they aspired to be egg timers. It was, apparently, the
only role in the attack that they could imagine for themselves
in which they got to die. And a glorious death was the
goal around which everything else was planned.
Why?
It can be
argued that the bomber's willing self-immolation was intended
as a psychological weapon: an attempt to instill fear and dread
among the infidels by a demonstration of selfless, mindless
faith. But this has been overdone a bit lately to still
be truly effective. We get it already. The little
nuts all want to die and get to the big Virgin Ranch in the
sky. The act now lacks much as a terror tool and instead
serves to convince Westerners that the bombers are imbeciles
--incapable of calculating either their own bodily self-interest
or the correct path to heaven.
While the
suicide-bomber culture undoubtedly overestimates the psychological
effect of their actions (just as we overestimate the shock
and awe of ours), surely they must understand that the
novelty of the whole thing wore off quite a while ago. So
if the suicide part of the London attack was neither tactically
necessary nor psychologically effective, why die? Why
not just walk away from the bombs and live to plant more?
Because such
a death is glory, and fame, and honor - beyond anything the
bombers could obtain through their small lives. And addressing
this fact - why suicide bombing is so appealing to the suicide
bombers - holds the key to reducing the problem.
The actions
of suicide bombers are not condemned by much of the Muslim
world. In fact, they enjoy a fawning adoration in many
segments of the population. One failed Palestinian suicide
bomber, a 15-year old boy caught by Israelis at a checkpoint,
explained the appeal of being a suicide bomber this way: "I
would become a martyr and go to my God. It's better than being
a singer or a footballer. It's better than everything."
This is a
received attitude - part of a popular culture of "martyr" worship
with many manifestations. The walls and storefronts of
Palestine are littered with tribute posters memorializing murder-martyrs,
many of them suicide bombers of civilian targets. The
Arab language Internet and media are strewn with the curious
pre-game interviews of human bombs taken shortly before they
leave for their missions. Palestinians have named schools
and children's soccer teams for suicide bombers. Islamic
Jihad has even held role-playing summer camps for adolescent
boys at which they are taught the many benefits of murder-suicide
as a potential career. And the families of bombers are
often the recipients of direct cash "charity" from
admirers, as well as respect and veneration - more valuable
than cash.
Many of these
examples are specific to Palestinian bombers, but they serve
to show the hagiographic esteem paid to suicide bombers by
large numbers of Muslims worldwide. More important than
any of specific manifestation of murder-martyr worship, is
the chance it offers the bomber to matter - the fame bestowed
upon bombers is very attractive. It allows the bomber
to enjoy the grim notoriety and strange fascination normally
afforded to the serial killer, while simultaneously having
a cheering section of millions applaud his work as moral. As
a suicide bomber, you can --quite literally-- go out in a blaze
of glory and join a pantheon of allegedly immortal heroes,
while bringing honor to your family and fame to your memory.
This must
be changed.
We must insure
that the legacy of suicide bombers is as negative as possible
--as a means of disrupting the curious social compact that
nourishes the supply of willing bomb parts. And we must
have an honest assessment of what is truly within our power
in order to accomplish this. We cannot simply say that
these men should not be heroes; we must take practical
action aimed at the glory, honor and fame providers. Suicide
killers must be made to bring pain and suffering to their would-be
fans. They must leave a legacy of suffering among their
friends and family.
There are
a number of means to this end that are fairly palatable to
the ethos of the West. These include:
1)
Shame. While it is difficult for those
outside a culture to shame those within it, it can be done. It
is often after battles that soldiers are most
disturbed by their actions - since that is when they can
see the faces on the enemies they have killed. Each
casualty is then a person, and the normal human reaction
to such things is deep aversion. The Western media
must do a better job of showing the world the faces of
the victims of suicide killers. The appetite for
pictures of the "victims" of Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo
is seemingly insatiable, with journalists (and other leftists)
endlessly suing the Pentagon to release new pictures of
long-documented events --and pasting every new picture
on the front page. Yet the victims of terrorism are
treated like a sports report: Bombing in Ankara tonight
-21 dead, 14 injured, 3 in critical condition. Leading
scorer for the Jihadistan Blue Devils this attack: Mohammed
abu Sharia, with 8 civilians, 1 soldier.
There are
over 50 people dead in London from the 7/7 attacks and I know
the names of only five: the four bombers and the unlucky cold-natured
Brazilian shot dead by English police for wearing an unseasonably
heavy coat into the subway and failing to halt when so ordered.
Who are the
victims? The fans of the suicide bombers - some of whom
live in Britain, Germany, France and America - need to see
their faces, their children, their mangled misshapen corpses,
their crying, angry mothers and fathers. Pictures of
the concentration camps repel even anti-Semites. Pictures
of Hiroshima horrified even Americans who believed (correctly)
that the attack was justified. And pictures of the victims
of terrorist murder will make watching the scores on the evening
news much less fun for the fans of terror. We must better
shame our adversaries at home and abroad.
2)
Momma can be made a martyr too, you know. Suicide
bombers have families. Mohammed Atta, leader of the
9/11 massacre, for example, has a father who lives a comfortable
life as a retired lawyer in Cairo, surrounded by pictures
of his evil son --of whom he is very proud. He spoke
to a reporter recently, praising the London attack
and wishing for many more like it. Apparently, the date
didn't fall far from the palm tree at the Atta home. Why
isn't Mr. Atta's father dead or in prison? Inciting
terrorism, as he clearly did in the interview - even offering
to donate money for a new attack, is a crime, after all.
Many young
men are willing to die. But how many want something bad
to happen to Mom and Dad and cute little brother Mo? If
the relative, friend, pet or junior prom date of a suicide
bomber jaywalks six years after the bombing, the FBI should
be there with handcuffs and a helicopter. This is legal. This
is moral. This would deter bombings. We should
extradite Mohammed Atta's father from Egypt. We should
deport relatives of domestic bombers to the Islamic paradises
from which they have fled. We should place bombers' relatives
on the no-fly, no-visit, and no-go-to-college-in-America lists
out to third cousins. And if a bombers' Granny has an
overdue library book, she should go to Gitmo. Mass-murder-by-suicide
should single your loved-ones out for extra attention.
3)
Public Auction: Mosque for sale. Likewise,
producing a single murder-martyr should single out a Mosque
and its Imam for extra attention. Experts have found
that Islamist terror often has some vague connection to
Islam. When this connection leads to a particular
Mosque, we need to ask questions, such as: "What is
preached in the sermons here?" "Did you
know religious incitement to murder is a violation of the
mosque's tax-exempt status?" "Is that lead
paint on the walls?" and "Did you know we never
did convict Al Capone for murder? By the way, where
are your old personal tax returns?"
4)
Is that goat hair on your nightstand? Fame
normally carries a downside: fame. If Brad Pitt has
toilet trouble, the tabloids are there with a camera on
a roto-rooter to find out what he had for dinner the night
before. The lack of privacy that comes with fame
is enough to discourage many people from public life. Everyone
has done something of which they are ashamed or which they
fear being made public. Suicide bombers are no different,
and it is time the media introduced terrorists to the downside
of martyrdom and its 15 minutes of sick fame.
The reporter
for an English tabloid that manages to land a graphic interview
with the gay lover of one of the London train bombers will
do more for the War on Terror than most armies. We must
document their failure, their fears, their weaknesses, and
their Viagra prescriptions. (Hint to media: just pretend
they are Republicans and go at 'em!)
It's hard
to be famous when all your would-be fans wish you had never
even been born. We should see to it that the cultural
support networks for the brave martyrs that blow up Zionist-Crusader
secretaries on morning trains is somewhat reduced in its enthusiasm.
We have a
lot more power than we use. Smart bombs can be very effective,
but carpet-bombing has its place too. tOR
This piece first appeared at Human
Events Online
copyright
2005 Mac Johnson
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