Suicide Bombers in CONUS

This 2007 thesis was written at a time when the threat of suicide bombings inspired by "Islamist" radical ideology was near a peak, and with the renewed conflict in the Middle East, sadly may soon become a significant concern again. It contains a then-unique historical table of suicide bombings 1980-2006 as well as many enduring insights about the strategic ramifications of this despicable weapon of "war".



From the author's abstract:

This monograph analyzes recent post-1980 suicide bombings and determines the probability of such bombings occurring in the Continental United States CONUS. The analysis includes a brief history of modern suicide bombing an examination of the strategic, tactical, social, and individual logic of suicide bombing a discussion of the probable characteristics of suicide bombings against the United States, both within CONUS and abroad and recommendations about what can be done to mitigate future bombings. Suicide attackers have been a part of warfare for over two millennia, but the coupling of suicide attackers and explosives greatly increased the importance and effectiveness of this tactic in the 20th century. The modern phenomenon of suicide bombing had its genesis in the Iran-Iraq War from 1980-88. Concurrent with the Iran-Iraq War, Iran influenced the development of Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hezbollah tried suicide bombing against the United States and France, and then later against Israel. Other groups such as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam LTTE, the Palestinians, and the Peoples Liberation Army of Kurdistan PKK started employing suicide bombers in the 1980s and 1990s. As suicide bombing spread geographically and ideologically, it also increased in sophistication. It advanced from being a simple bomb delivered by truck, to include suicide vests, boat bombs, and eventually airplanes. The vast majority of suicide bombings 98 are part of an organized campaign. The only group that conducts suicide bombings against the United States outside of active war zones is Al-Qaida. Al-Qaida attacks have evolved to the point where there are two different strains al-Qaida-sponsored and al-Qaida-inspired. Both are likely to occur in the continental United States within the mid-future. Appendix A lists 2,202 suicide bombings that have occurred since 1980. As of early 2007, this is the best available open source suicide bombing database in the world.



This annotated edition illustrates the capabilities of the AI Lab for Book-Lovers to add context and ease-of-use to manuscripts. It includes five types of abstracts, building from simplest to more complex: TLDR (one word), ELI5, TLDR (vanilla), Scientific Style, and Action Items; four perspectives essays to increase viewpoint diversity: Context in the Discourse, Formal Dissent; Red Team Critique; and MAGA Perspective; and Notable Passages and Nutshell Summaries for each page. While ordinarily I would have used generative AI to create a cover illustration, in this case safety restrictions from model providers made it impractical.