Page 373 - Essencials of Sociology

346 Chapter 11 politics and the economy

4. Prestige: defending the nation’s “honor”
terrorism the use of violence or
the threat of violence to produce 5. Leaders: protecting or exalting the leaders’ positions
fear in order to attain political 6. Ethnicity: bringing under their rule “our people” who are living in another country
objectives 7. Beliefs: converting others to religious or political beliefs
You can use these three essential conditions and seven fuels to analyze any war. They
will help you understand why politicians at that time chose this political action.

The Flesh and Blood of War Sociological analysis can be cold and dispassionate.
Watch on MySocLab These “fuels” of war are like this: accurate and insightful, but cold. Throughout this
Video: NPR: The Long War in
Afghanistan book, I’ve tried to bring you the flesh and blood of topics, to help you see the ways that
people experience life. So let’s do this again.
Behind these “fuels” are politicians who make the bloody choice to go to war. They
do not fight the war themselves, of course. They sit back and watch it from the comfort
of their homes and offices. Some even profit from the war by making investments in
companies that produce weapons. For most politicians, the deaths are bloodless affairs.
It is young men, and increasingly young women, who do the killing—and dying—for
them. Some soldiers are killed on the battlefield; others survive but are mutilated for the
rest of their lives. Many who survive with their body intact suffer emotionally. Some of
my students have shared their suffering with me, but let me close this section with one
of the most powerful statements I have come across. A soldier from California wrote this
just before he put a bullet through his brain (Smith 1980):

I can’t sleep anymore. When I was in Vietnam, we came across a North Vietnamese sol-
dier with a man, a woman, and a three- or four-year-old girl. We had to shoot them all.
I can’t get the little girl’s face out of my mind. I hope that God will forgive me . . .
I can’t.
Watch on MySocLab
Video: Bin Laden Tape Terrorism
Mustafa Jabbar, in Najaf, Iraq, is proud of his first born, a baby boy. Yet he said, “I will
The hatred and vengeance of adults put mines in the baby and blow him up.” (Sengupta 2004)
become the children’s heritage.
The headband of this 4-year-old Can feelings really run so deep that a father would sacrifice his only son? Some groups
Palestinian boy reads: “Friends of nourish hatred, endlessly chronicling the injustices and atrocities of their archenemy.
Martyrs.” Stirred in a cauldron of bitter hatred, antagonism can span generations, its
embers sometimes burning for centuries. The combination of perceived injus-
tice and righteous hatred fuels the desire to strike out—but what can a group
do if it is weaker than its enemy? Unable to meet its more powerful opponent
on the battlefield, one option is terrorism, violence intended to create fear
in order to bring about political objectives. And, yes, if the hatred is strong
enough, that can mean blowing up your only child.
Suicide terrorism, a weapon sometimes chosen by the weaker group, cap-
tures headlines around the world. Among the groups that have used suicide
terrorism are the Palestinians against the Israelis and the Iraqis against U.S.
troops. The suicide terrorism that has had the most profound effects on our
lives is the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon under the
direction of Osama bin Laden. What kind of sick people become suicide
terrorists? This is the topic of the Down-to-Earth Sociology box on the
next page.

Targeted Killings
To U.S. officials, al-Qaeda has been like a multi-headed snake. Over and
over, the head of some al-Qaeda group has been targeted and killed. In each
instance, a replacement head pops up and takes over. Although this process
of targeting and killing seems endless, it continues. A new element has been
added, however, which we explore in the Thinking Critically section on the
page 348.