Intimations of Mortality or Production Lines? The Puzzle of "Suicide Terrorism"

The argument proposed by Kruglanski, Chen, Dechesne, Fishman, and Orehek has much to commend it. It is a serious and discerning examination of a perturbing subject that is high on the national policy agenda.  The analysis is sophisticated in that does not pinpoint a single factor, such as religious doctrine, the presence of a democratic foreign occupier of a different religion, or psychopathology. The study recognizes the multifaceted complexity of causation in explaining this particular aspect of terrorism. The authors cite a typically human aspiration or drive that is taken to extremes in particularly trying circumstances.