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Afghanistan
The Smiling Suicide Bomber
2008-03-29
Cüneyt Ciftci, a young man from Bavaria, blew himself up outside a government building in Afghanistan, killing two US soldiers and two Afghanis. SPIEGEL ONLINE has obtained a video documenting the final minutes in the life of the first German-born suicide bomber.

It's the perpetual grin that is most disturbing. The young man looks directly into the camera. He seems cheerful in his small cap and white shalwar kameez, the traditional Afghan dress. He smiles as he hoists the heavy bags of chemicals on to his shoulders. Grinning, he points skyward to Allah.

His permanent smile comes despite his knowledge -- or perhaps precisely because of it -- that he will soon die. It's impossible to hear what he is saying. Flowery suras from the Koran are dubbed over his voice. "How lucky you are, that death brings you the sunrise," sings a man's voice. "That you go to the front, that you burn in the name of Islam." Then the young man says goodbye to his companions. Before he drives off, he kneels down in the dust and prays one last time.

The man is the 28-year-old German-born Turkish citizen Cüneyt Ciftci (more...), who was born in the Bavarian town of Freising. Until April 2, 2007 he lived together with his family in Ansbach. The images come from a 45-minute DVD which SPIEGEL ONLINE obtained this week in Afghanistan from the media wing of the Taliban. SPIEGEL ONLINE was first offered the film, "Source of the Jihad," in Pakistan. A middleman with contacts to the Taliban wanted to sell it for a five-figure US dollar sum.
Posted by:Fred

#6  someone in world war II when asked how to fight an enemy that is willing to die for his cause, replied "oblige him"

good advice then good advice now.
Posted by: Abu do you love   2008-03-29 12:16  

#5  reports from my son in the Army is yes, they all suffer.
Posted by: Frank G   2008-03-29 08:20  

#4  Re. 'collective punishment', does the Army still use it to build unit cohesion in training - one guy errs & the whole unit runs an extra mile etc? Or is that too non-PC too?
When I was a kid and the coach didn't know who had talked while his back was turned, he made us all do push-ups, knowing that 1) he was punishing the talker, and 2) the rest of us knew who the talker was and would punish him some more later. I'm sure that's gone too.
Posted by: Glenmore   2008-03-29 07:37  

#3  I don't care where this pinhead was born, he isn't German or Bavarian. Muslims out of Western lands now.
Posted by: Harry Jong5338   2008-03-29 04:10  

#2  Throughout the history of mankind - at family level, at tribal level, and at formal governmental level, there has always been the challenge of behavior modification - via the concept of incentives (carrots) and sanctions (sticks).

Deterrence has always been an important part of the package.

Suicide bombing seems to be almost exclusively an Islamic specialty these days. Sanctions and deterrence don't seem very applicable concepts in this problem.

But - there is a time-honored method - that of carrying out painful reprisals. In the PC world of the 21st Century, the "collective punishment" aspect of reprisals must appear pretty unpalatable - the Israelis caught no end of grief for their policy of bulldozing the family homes of suicide bombers. But - I'll wager that more than a few would-be suicide bombers were dissuaded from proceeding with their plans by the certain knowledge that their families would suffer.

Because the Islamoboomers generally seem to carry out their attacks in countries other than those where their families reside, reprisals seem to be "off the table".

Perhaps it is time for a summit of world leaders, to hammer out a global reprisal law - that visits misery and ruin upon the families of suicide bombers, wherever those families live.

Brutal? - yes. Necessary? - probably. Will mistakes be made? - possibly.

Discriminatory? - not if the rule is applied to all races, religions, creeds, nationalities, and political flavors - and let the chips fall where they may.

Does it work? - as I recall, the horse-mounted couriers of Ghenghis Khan were renowned for their ability to move through all lands without fear of molestation - because of the widespread knowledge of the fate that awaited any community within whose jurisdiction an official courier was harmed.

At government level, only the Russians - and the Israelis - seem to have had the stomach for reprisals in recent times.

End of rant.
Posted by: Lone Ranger   2008-03-29 01:05  

#1  It won't take much of this to inspire a full-throated cry of "Muzzies Out--No Exceptions!" If they're willing and happy to kill themselves, the only protection for the civilized world is to make sure they physically have no place to do so except in the hellholes they originally came from.
Posted by: Ho Chi Whimp8387   2008-03-29 00:26  

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