Humans as Weapons

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Its a terrible feeling when I see one person kill many others by detonating some kind of bomb while at the same time killing themselves. There has to be more to why this person did this terrible act rather than the favored thought that they were psychologically unstable, because these suicidal acts continuously happen. Some people think all suicide bombers have characteristics in common, but thats not always the case. These terrorists are sometimes forced or raised to believe that suicide bombing is the only way to fight for their political positions, religious beliefs, or their personal motives. The attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 was an eye opener to the world. These suicide attacks continued all around the world in different forms and sizes. It became the norm to see another suicide attack reported on the news. Its been a bias to think these “suicide bombers” are psychotic and selfish to want to kill themselves and also kill many others. After more than a decade since the 9/11 attack, suicide bombing is still curious to most people. Research has tended to focus on the mindset of suicide bombers rather than the motivations of the organizations that plan out these missions for these individuals. These organizations are using suicide bombing as a lethal weapon. The first suicide bombing was by accident in Russia by terrorist Ignaty Grinevitsky (Lewis). Grinevitsky was apart of a terrorist group who wanted to murder Alexander II, the leader of Imperial Russia (Lewis). They tried numerous times but failed and became desperate (Lewis). Grinevitsky and another terrorist planned to ambush Alexander using small hand thrown bombs (Lewis). The first terrorist threw his bomb only damaging Alexanders carriage and for... ... middle of paper ... ...Arie W., Chen, Xiaoyan, Dechesne, Mark, Fishman, Shira, and Orehek, Edward. “Fully Committed: Suicide Bombers' Motivation and the Quest for Personal Significance.” Political Psychology 30.3 (2009): 331-357. Academic Search Premier. Web. 6 Nov. 2013. Lewis, Jeffrey. The Human Use of Human Beings: A Brief History of Suicide Bombing. Origins, 2013. Web. 6 Nov. 2013. Piazza, James A. "A Supply-Side View of Suicide Terrorism: A Cross-National Study."The Journal of Politics 70.01 (2008): Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. Soibelman, Mali. “Palestinian Suicide Bombers.” Journal of Investigative Psychology & Offender Profiling 1.3 (2004): 175-190. Academic Search Premier. Web. 6 Nov. 2013. Weinberg, Leonard, Pedahzur, Ami, and Canetti-Nisim, Daphna. The Social and Religious Characteristics of Suicide Bombers and Their Victims. Academia.edu, 2003. Web. 6 Nov. 2013.

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