Volunteers to be Suicide Bombers

I wasn't defending suicide bomber's action, just explaining their motivation, which is very much the same as those 'Western' recipients of the medal of honor.

Neither group joined to earn the medal or the 'martyrhood'. As a recent western posthumous recipient's relative quoted his reason for joining the Marines said, "He wanted to be a part of something bigger than himself". Until we 'get that', we will never understand what drives them.

Leadfoot-

Thank you.

And do you have a clue about why they grow or how to respond to movements like Isis, Boko Haram, etc.?

1) I think there are cases where an individual and/or group is forced to live under extremely unjust conditions and there is no way to end the injustice except through the suicide of one or more persons. I can understand suicide under those conditions.

2) If one is taught from childhood that suicide is praiseworthy and will be rewarded in ones afterlife, I can understand suicide. I wonder though if the (older?) (richer?) man advising the young man to commit suicide, would also recommend it to his own son or would commit suicide himself?

The reason why they grow is a misguided response to that urge to 'be a part of something bigger'.

Our first response should be to stop pretending that it isn't. Since that drive is universally present, stop thinking you can wipe it out by eliminating the current crop. It Will grow up again.

The things you mentioned can be aggravating factors but are not the root cause. Note the example of people like 'jihad John' and the Boston marathon bombers who western countries 'saved' from their harsh impoverished conditions, gave them a much higher standard of living and yet they turned on us. There are also countless examples of middle class and rich 'kids' who never had struggles like you cite who turn suicidal/homocidal (it's actually the same thing).

People deal with and react to this inborn urge in inumerable ways. Some become sports fans, missionaries, terrorists, humanitarians, soldiers, atheists... List is endless. Some are driven strongly enough to give up their life while others are so tepid that they do little more than vote down posts and posters that offend them on a2k.

Realizing the root cause is probably the best we can do to minimize the negative responses and maximize the positive ones.

I should have added 'policeman' to the list.

From today's Washington Post:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/11/04/reports-illinois-cop-whose-shooting-sparked-nationwide-outrage-actually-killed-himself/