The Glorification of Suicide Terrorism

Suicide terrorism has been on the rise.  It is a daily occurrence in the war-ridden Middle East, and has been seen in countries such as Argentina, Europe, Russia, and the United States.  In Hoffman’s paper “The Logic of Suicide Terrorism”, he discusses the daily life of people in Israel.  Patrons in Israel cannot simply enter a café, for example.  Instead, before they walk through the door, they are met by a guard who will pat them down in order to look for explosive devises.  In a post-9/11 world, US citizens have also become accustomed to rigorous security checks at the airport. 

Suicide terrorism has impacted daily life all over the world, be it intensified security checkpoints, or a constant worry in the back of one’s head when riding the subway, that a terrorist could be sitting next to you with explosives. 

Suicide terrorism is different from more traditional modes of terrorism.  Hoffman explains that they suicide terrorism is inexpensive, reliably deadly, and the terrorist act is guaranteed media coverage.  And perhaps the most surprising part about it all? Suicide terrorism often works. 

Kydd and Walter in their piece “The Strategies of Terrorism,” explain that between 1980 and 2003, “Half of all suicide terrorist campaigns were closely followed by substantial concessions by the target governments.”  Democracies are often targeted because of the fact that democratic leaders must respond to the desires of the people.  Because suicide terrorism “tears at the fabric of trust that holds societies together,” (Hoffman) societies that are affected by suicide attacks are more than likely going to request from their government that they stop the attacks.  Often times, that means conceding to terrorist demands. 

Suicide terrorism continues because the terrorist organizations get what they want from the attack: mass chaos, which translates into a scared society that is likely to concede to terrorist demands. 

And the media might not be helping either.  In Carolyn Guertin’s article “All the Rage,” the author discusses that “the attraction of becoming a suicide bomber is not the fantasy of being rewarded with virgins in heaven, but the intense feeling of being noticed in a world where being noticed—preferably on video—has somehow become the sole crowning achievement in and of itself.”  A suicide attack is likely to gain 24/7 media coverage and intense analysis of the event.  Not only does this glorify the attackers and the terrorist network from which they came, but may also act as a recruitment tool for other potential suicide terrorists, hoping to one day live up to the actions of those before him. 

Suicide attacks, more recently, have been seen not in the context of war, but in mass shootings.  Terrorists such as the “joker” who fatally shot twelve people in an Aurora movie theater, or Adam Lanza who shot 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School, have gotten intense media coverage during and after the shootings.  Does the media unintentionally “set the stakes” for potential mass shooters, glorifying every detail of the shooting so as to set the bar for the next shooter?  Perhaps.  Dr. Par Dietz, an expert in forensics stated: “I’ve repeatedly told CNN and other media, ‘if you don’t want to propagate mass murders, don’t start the story of sirens blaring.  Don’t have photographs of the killer.  Don’t make this 24/7 coverage.  Do everything you can not to make the body count lead the story ad to make the killer some sort of anti-hero.” 

Though a difficult policy prescription to follow, perhaps the media should lessen its media coverage of terrorist attacks.  They should dig deep into the killer’s life, analyzing his every move.  Instead, they should cover basic information about the shooting, and give advice to those in the area or those affected.  By doing so, perhaps we can lessen the “glorification” of mass killing by suicide terrorism and, in turn, lessen the amount that suicide terrorism occurs.