Suicide Bombing:Doing the math:Acknowledging the Alien

I find myself shuddering because it's so easy to slip into acceptance (normalization) of the daily headlines. "Suicide Bomber kills XX Iraqi _____________ and ______________soldiers." The truth is that suicide bombing should never slide to normality. It is- though horrific- demanding of our attention. At one level, I wonder if the 'terrorizers' are simply, cynically doing mathematical equations somewhere. On the one hand there is a giant pool of good people in Iraq who want to have order and good government and a job and parks to take their children to. On the other hand there is a stream of young, indoctrinated Muslims who have been convinced that killing themselves in order to kill the perceived enemy is an act guaranteeing salvation. If you start adding up the numbers, the crazed bombers are killing and maiming many times their own numbers. It seems as if 100 successful bombers can kill ten times their own number. And someplace in the equation there is a variable called 'morale' or something similar. Each time a bomber kills a handful of Iraqi policemen, there is a small but measurable change in the willingness of others to step into their shoes. It may be that suicide murders like this steel the resolve of good people not to let themselves be beaten. It may be that suicide murders make new recruits wary of 'getting involved'. It may be that both are happening- lines showing an impending intersection when resolve and weariness intersect. Regardless, there is a nasty reality tied to the lone bomber's disproportionate impact. Additionally, though we haven't seen many examples of this, there is the Sarajevo problem. Back at the beginning of the 20th Century, the first Great War was triggered by the willingness of a lone assassin to get close enough to assasinate the persons who were keys to the geopolitical framework that existed. One killer taking out the right people at the right place and time, could trigger disproportionate reactions between the bigger players in the world. If I were a terrorist strategist, I'd be looking for a way to put a suicide bomber or other killer in a position to push international connections past a perceived tipping point.
Beyond all those observations, though, is another which may be more important. The reality is that a steady stream of Muslims continue to demonstrate their willingness to commit acts of violence knowing they themselves will die- and welcoming that. This is not a state of mind that has an obvious parallel in our culture. And I think we are foolish to let it become a 'normalized' state in our thinking. The "murder martyr" is not the usual adversary. And we need to think more deeply about what we see happening because of that.

Peace