The culture of Martyrdom by David Brooks describes the political strategy that terrorists use to instil fear into their opponents. It discusses how extremist groups benefit from the culture of martyrdom. The book reveals how young people are recruited to advance the political agenda of terrorist groups. The use of martyrs was an extreme war tactic, which proved rather unusual to understand because it became a weapon of choice for many people. The unusual thing about the suicide bombings that began in 1983 is how terrorists sometimes preferred to die for a cause, even in the instances where death was unnecessary. The rate of suicide bombings was so high in the 1980s and 1990s, and many of these suicide bombing incidents would have been executed by planting bombs without the need to harm anyone.
Therefore, David Brooks states that suicide bombings were not only a means but an end. In other words, suicide bombings ceased to become the last resort but became a regular terrorist attack. This phenomenon was intriguing for opposing governments from the west to cope with because there was no logical way to counter such occurrences. The culture of martyrdom became a successful weapon for terrorist groups because of the method used to groom individuals for different roles (Brooks). For instance, extremist groups in regions like Palestine indulge children in simple tasks. Regardless of the simplicity of tasks delegated to these children, terrorists used this opportunity to cultivate extremist notions that glorified martyrdom from a tender age.
As a result, numerous people from Palestine were conditioned to believe that they were helpless against Israel and other western opponents. Therefore, such individuals were highly motivated to engage in acts of martyrdom with the hope of advancing their cause (Brooks). By the end of the read, the author reveals that the optimal way to deal with such acts of terrorism is to focus on the agenda and passion that fuel the attacks rather than the demands made by these tourists.
Work Cited
Brooks, David. ‘The Culture of Martyrdom’. The Atlantic, 2002, Web.