The Amazing high of being blown
This really depends upon whose side you are looking at it from. But can they really be humans?
One of the greatest living US writers has praised terrorists as “very brave people” and used drug culture slang to describe the “amazing high” suicide bombers must feel before blowing themselves up.
Vonnegut said it was “sweet and honourable” to die for what you believe in, and rejected the idea that terrorists were motivated by twisted religious beliefs.
“They are dying for their own self-respect,” he said. “It’s a terrible thing to deprive someone of their self-respect. It’s like your culture is nothing, your race is nothing, you’re nothing.”
Asked if he thought of terrorists as soldiers, Vonnegut, a decorated World War II veteran, said: “I regard them as very brave people, yes.”
Ignoring to get into the arguments whether the terrorists deserve medals of bravery or not, it makes one think whether there is a genuine human angle to solving the problem of terrorism which people have not been looking at in the humdum of all the war drumbeats? Is today’s terrorism because someone’s culture has been trampled upon or because their cultural ambitions have been trampled upon? Or just because people are playing power games with their illiterate (or misguided) followers? What can they think that they can realistically achieve to get through terrorism than normal discourse? Can terrorists ever let development take place in their regions, or even they are false prophets not unlike any other politician, except far more lethal?



Hi UnSaid,
This is THE question right? Why are these terrorists [read middle east suicide bombers] doing this? Its incomprehensible to the masses. If we can understand it, we can overcome it. Whatever argument you put forth, there are no set parameters that can be used to characterize these terrorists.
One thing that we can say for sure is that this has been a perfect storm of events. To quote from a previous post of mine:
“…The Center for Strategic and International Studies recently published a report. I’ve taken some information from the report that is relevant here:
*1989: Fall of the Berlin Wall
*1989-1991: Fall of Communist regimes in Eastern Europe
*1990: Victory of the US led coalition in reversing Iraq’s annexation of Kuwait
*1991: Fall of the Soviet Union
*1993: Israeli - Palestinian Peace Pact
These five major events were all in the interests of peace. The fall of Communism and the end of the Cold War meant a victory for Democracy. We were all expecting bigger and better things, world peace and a new world order….
What unfolded is something as expected as the Indian Elections.
*The collapse of the Soviet Union resulted in a vacuum that resulted in wars in Bosnia, Kosovo and Chechenya.
*There were wars in Asia [the Tajik Civil War] and territorial disputes between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
*Afghanistan went through a bloody civil war, and saw the Taliban take control [Osama bhai was in place].
*The Prime Minister of Isreal - Yitzhak Rabin - was assasinated in 1994 and there was a renewal of tension between Arabs and Israeli’s.
Notice the common thread from the above? All the above conflicts involved Muslim states. Maybe a unfortunate coincidence, but whatever the reason, the action or rather the inaction of the world’s sole superpower and the international community in dealing with these situations resulted in deep resentment, and these places served as breeding grounds for terrorists, and radicals…”
Ram
Comment by The Muse — Mon 28 November, 2005 @ 5:29 am
Ram, true. But … and everything begins with a but…is voilence really the only credible way to defeat terrorism? It happened in Punjab. Kashmir terrorism is largely Pakistani insurgency driven and the local support has withered away largely because of a heavy Indian hand and the terrorists started treating the locals as their slaves to rape and pillage at will. No anti-terrorist (or anti-militant) drive in the world has succeeded,if at all, without a heavy military posturing. Terrorists kill anyone who is against them, even peaceful activists. Will it take another Normandy-like invasion on the shores of pathogenic states, another Dhaka-like liberation to free the bodies of their virulent souls?
Comment by Sachin — Tue 29 November, 2005 @ 4:01 am