The Myth of Martyrdom (Lankford Reference Lankford2013c), offers a startlingly simple message: suicide bombers are suicidal. They want to die to escape personal problems the way a patient with end-stage cancer wants to escape pain. Dying in an attack on the enemy provides a socially acceptable form of suicide, and earlier analyses of suicide bombing have erred in seeing the bomber's cause as the cause of the bomber's act.
The author understands that his thesis is far from the mainstream of terrorism research. Referring to himself, Lankford muses that “A young professor should not be able to uncover the secret motives of suicide terrorists in just a few years, while the rest of the world essentially failed to do so in the decade that followed 9/11” (p. 11).
Lankford takes several tacks in advancing his thesis.
First, he argues that suicide bombers are suicidal because they orchestrate their own deaths. “As a starting point for a more sophisticated theory, this book takes the view that, by definition, all suicide terrorists are suicidal” (p. 10). This shortcut is quickly left behind, however, in order to engage issues relating to the motivations of suicide bombers. Lankford argues that suicide bombers are not heroes because heroes – the soldier who falls on a grenade, the Secret Service officer who takes a bullet for the president – act to save others rather than to harm others, and act on trained reflexes with no intention of dying.
This is an odd argument in two ways. There are heroes, like Audie Murphy, who are awarded the United States Medal of Honor for extraordinary risk-taking in attacking and killing the enemy. And it is not obvious why the individual who acts without thinking is more heroic than one who chooses death.
Lankford further argues (p. 122) that U.S. suicide terrorists (n = 12) are similar to U.S. rampage shooters (n = 18) and to U.S. school shooters (n = 16). In Lankford's codings of these cases, the great majority of all three groups have mental health problems, most die in the course of their attacks, and many are socially marginalized or suffering from school or work or family problems. In this portrait, suicide terrorists are not heroes but troubled loners with mental health problems.
Of course the small numbers make statistical conclusions difficult. And, although the suicide terrorists are identified by name, the rampage shooters and school shooters are not identified. Readers must trust that the author has included all relevant cases and that definitions of social marginalization, family problems, work/school problems, and mental health problems were consistently and reliably coded across the three groups.
Another issue here is that rampage shooters and school shooters are predominantly lone actors, without group or organizational support, whereas suicide terrorists are volunteers or recruits for an organization that arms them and selects their target. One might learn more about lone-actor terrorists by comparing them with predominantly lone-actor school attackers and assassins (McCauley et al. Reference McCauley, Moskalenko and Van Son2013), but it is unlikely that suicide bombers, embedded in an organization, have the same motives as lone-actor rampage and school shooters.
Finally, Lankford's thesis must stand or fall with evidence about the motivations of suicide bombers. Willing to die for a cause is martyrdom. Wanting to die to escape human travail – suicide – is condemned by major religions and, to varying extents, by the social norms of most cultures. Although motivation can be difficult to ascertain, it is straightforward to count the numbers of suicide bombers.
In Israel and the Occupied Territories, between 1981 and 2008, Palestinian suicide bombers numbered 216 (Merari Reference Merari2010). Tamil Tiger suicide bombers numbered 378 between 2006 and 2008 (Ministry of Defence, Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka 2011). Suicide bombers in Iraq numbered 1,779 between 2003 and 2010 (Seifert & McCauley, in press). In Afghanistan, between 2001 and 2011, suicide bombers numbered 736 (Bhattacharya Reference Bhattacharya2011); in Pakistan, between 1995 and 2012, suicide bombers numbered 369 (Pakistan Body Count 2012). Some of these numbers may seem surprising. Palestinian suicide bombers are few in relation to suicide bombers in other countries, and half of suicide bombers are in Iraq. The total across countries for the past 35 years is 3,478; countries and years not included in this rough count make 3,500 a minimal estimate of the number of suicide bombers in recent decades. This is the size and breadth of the phenomenon of interest.
Lankford raises the question, how many of the 3,500 were suicidal? His Appendix A (“Partial list of suicide terrorists with risk factors for suicide”) contains 142 cases, but only 40 have enough detail to be cited in a chapter. These 40 cases are not representative of the 3,500 in terms of country origins (no cases from Iraq vs. 20 expected). And the causal value of the risk factors identified for these 40 cases can be questionable, because many individuals with risk factors for suicide never attempt suicide.
But let us suppose for a moment that all 40 cases were persuasively shown to be suicidal. What should we conclude about the 3,500 suicide bombers? One possibility is to estimate that about 1% of suicide bombers are suicidal. Lankford believes that something close to 100% are suicidal. Readers will have to decide which is the more reasonable estimate.
Given the uncertain evidence that suicide bombers are suicidal, it is worth asking why this book has attracted attention. I believe that the appeal of Lankford's thesis is psychological and political. Psychologically, it is reassuring to think that our enemies are not so committed to their cause as they seem. They do not generate martyrs for their cause, they only channel suicides to masquerade as martyrs. Their commitment to their cause is no stronger than our commitment to our cause; they are not going to outlast us. Politically, it is reassuring to think that “As a form of psychological warfare, [this book] could be used to smear the reputations of suicide terrorists by portraying them as weak, cowardly, and suicidal” (p. 172). The enemy won't be listening to this, but it can play well with U.S. voters. It has always been easy to see terrorists as crazy (McCauley & Segal Reference McCauley, Segal and Hendrick1987).
The Myth of Martyrdom (Lankford Reference Lankford2013c), offers a startlingly simple message: suicide bombers are suicidal. They want to die to escape personal problems the way a patient with end-stage cancer wants to escape pain. Dying in an attack on the enemy provides a socially acceptable form of suicide, and earlier analyses of suicide bombing have erred in seeing the bomber's cause as the cause of the bomber's act.
The author understands that his thesis is far from the mainstream of terrorism research. Referring to himself, Lankford muses that “A young professor should not be able to uncover the secret motives of suicide terrorists in just a few years, while the rest of the world essentially failed to do so in the decade that followed 9/11” (p. 11).
Lankford takes several tacks in advancing his thesis.
First, he argues that suicide bombers are suicidal because they orchestrate their own deaths. “As a starting point for a more sophisticated theory, this book takes the view that, by definition, all suicide terrorists are suicidal” (p. 10). This shortcut is quickly left behind, however, in order to engage issues relating to the motivations of suicide bombers. Lankford argues that suicide bombers are not heroes because heroes – the soldier who falls on a grenade, the Secret Service officer who takes a bullet for the president – act to save others rather than to harm others, and act on trained reflexes with no intention of dying.
This is an odd argument in two ways. There are heroes, like Audie Murphy, who are awarded the United States Medal of Honor for extraordinary risk-taking in attacking and killing the enemy. And it is not obvious why the individual who acts without thinking is more heroic than one who chooses death.
Lankford further argues (p. 122) that U.S. suicide terrorists (n = 12) are similar to U.S. rampage shooters (n = 18) and to U.S. school shooters (n = 16). In Lankford's codings of these cases, the great majority of all three groups have mental health problems, most die in the course of their attacks, and many are socially marginalized or suffering from school or work or family problems. In this portrait, suicide terrorists are not heroes but troubled loners with mental health problems.
Of course the small numbers make statistical conclusions difficult. And, although the suicide terrorists are identified by name, the rampage shooters and school shooters are not identified. Readers must trust that the author has included all relevant cases and that definitions of social marginalization, family problems, work/school problems, and mental health problems were consistently and reliably coded across the three groups.
Another issue here is that rampage shooters and school shooters are predominantly lone actors, without group or organizational support, whereas suicide terrorists are volunteers or recruits for an organization that arms them and selects their target. One might learn more about lone-actor terrorists by comparing them with predominantly lone-actor school attackers and assassins (McCauley et al. Reference McCauley, Moskalenko and Van Son2013), but it is unlikely that suicide bombers, embedded in an organization, have the same motives as lone-actor rampage and school shooters.
Finally, Lankford's thesis must stand or fall with evidence about the motivations of suicide bombers. Willing to die for a cause is martyrdom. Wanting to die to escape human travail – suicide – is condemned by major religions and, to varying extents, by the social norms of most cultures. Although motivation can be difficult to ascertain, it is straightforward to count the numbers of suicide bombers.
In Israel and the Occupied Territories, between 1981 and 2008, Palestinian suicide bombers numbered 216 (Merari Reference Merari2010). Tamil Tiger suicide bombers numbered 378 between 2006 and 2008 (Ministry of Defence, Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka 2011). Suicide bombers in Iraq numbered 1,779 between 2003 and 2010 (Seifert & McCauley, in press). In Afghanistan, between 2001 and 2011, suicide bombers numbered 736 (Bhattacharya Reference Bhattacharya2011); in Pakistan, between 1995 and 2012, suicide bombers numbered 369 (Pakistan Body Count 2012). Some of these numbers may seem surprising. Palestinian suicide bombers are few in relation to suicide bombers in other countries, and half of suicide bombers are in Iraq. The total across countries for the past 35 years is 3,478; countries and years not included in this rough count make 3,500 a minimal estimate of the number of suicide bombers in recent decades. This is the size and breadth of the phenomenon of interest.
Lankford raises the question, how many of the 3,500 were suicidal? His Appendix A (“Partial list of suicide terrorists with risk factors for suicide”) contains 142 cases, but only 40 have enough detail to be cited in a chapter. These 40 cases are not representative of the 3,500 in terms of country origins (no cases from Iraq vs. 20 expected). And the causal value of the risk factors identified for these 40 cases can be questionable, because many individuals with risk factors for suicide never attempt suicide.
But let us suppose for a moment that all 40 cases were persuasively shown to be suicidal. What should we conclude about the 3,500 suicide bombers? One possibility is to estimate that about 1% of suicide bombers are suicidal. Lankford believes that something close to 100% are suicidal. Readers will have to decide which is the more reasonable estimate.
Given the uncertain evidence that suicide bombers are suicidal, it is worth asking why this book has attracted attention. I believe that the appeal of Lankford's thesis is psychological and political. Psychologically, it is reassuring to think that our enemies are not so committed to their cause as they seem. They do not generate martyrs for their cause, they only channel suicides to masquerade as martyrs. Their commitment to their cause is no stronger than our commitment to our cause; they are not going to outlast us. Politically, it is reassuring to think that “As a form of psychological warfare, [this book] could be used to smear the reputations of suicide terrorists by portraying them as weak, cowardly, and suicidal” (p. 172). The enemy won't be listening to this, but it can play well with U.S. voters. It has always been easy to see terrorists as crazy (McCauley & Segal Reference McCauley, Segal and Hendrick1987).