Dumb Ass Suicide Bomber
Time:
Last week, at the Directorate of National Intelligence in Kabul, I met a failed suicide bomber. Arrested two weeks before in Jalalabad, preparing to assassinate the governor of Nangahar Province, Farhad was setting outside of Pakistan’s Waziristan Province for the first time.
Only 17, he was terrified. Not only because of an uncertain fate, but perhaps more so because the world was not as the Taliban had described it. The Taliban indoctrinated him well, convincing him the Americans were stealing the faith of Afghan Muslims. Turning them into kafirs. I asked him if he hated the governor. No, it was simply that in working with the Americans he’d fallen away from Islam. He deserved to die.
It was immediately clear this kid was ignorant of the world; the boundaries of his village were his world. I asked him if he’d heard of Iraq. He had, but when I asked him if he could point it out on a map, he said he couldn’t. The same with Palestine. I doubt that he’d ever seen a map.
That begged the question what he knew about Islam. When I asked he said he’d read the Quran. I asked it him if he understood it. He shook his head. It was then it became apparent his education went no farther than the madrassa—he was taught to recite the Quran in Arabic but did not understand a word. Other than what he was told.
And this is where the Taliban came in. Spotting him in the village mosque, they invited him to attend what can only be called an indoctrination course in Waziristan. There he was taught that suicide bombers go directly to heaven, where they’re met by virgins and lush gardens. Farhad was also taught that any Muslim working with the Americans in Afghanistan was no longer a Muslim, but a “munafiq,” a pretend Muslim. It was written in the Quran, Farhad was assured.
Even I, who have tried to get a grip on Muslim suicide bombing, was stunned by the depth of the brainwashing. I’d never seen anything like it. So I asked the question, What religion is Musharraf, the president of Pakistan? He’s a Jew, the Taliban had assured Farhad.
No wonder Farhad agreed to go to Jalalabad to kill a fellow Muslim. Still, wasn’t there a doubt in his mind about taking his life like that and who knows how many others? No. The Taliban had told him that when he pushed the button on his suicide vest, it was Allah then who would decide whether to summon him to heaven or not.
Earlier that day I’d visited NATO headquarters to talk to an American Marine colonel who tracks suicide bombings and improvised explosive devices. He came straight to the point: neither military force nor intelligence is going to stop suicide bombings. Only “mitigate” them. What NATO is pressing the Afghans to do is to deindocrinate young men like Farhad. But how do you get someone like Farhad, who may never have seen a map, change his radical world view?
Robert Baer, a former CIA field officer assigned to the Middle East, is TIME.com’s intelligence columnist and the author of See No Evil and, most recently, the novel Blow the House Down.
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Its a shame, this war is against a theology that is anti Judeo-Christian without a hint that these people have anything other than a Koran. Suppose somebody rejects Christianity, the worse that is ordered against inhospitality of a Christian’s message is the shaking off the dust of their feet, and they move on. Rejecting the Muslim message results in enslavement or death. AQ prefers death.
July 20th, 2007 at 1:35 pmMicah the prophet is quoted as saying to love justice and mercy– with AQ its love killing. How are these people going to see the light other than at the end of their lives?
I saw some stats on the average intelligence level of most suicide bombers. And this guy is in the minority. Muhammed Atta and his co-conspirators are the average. Middle class, educated, come from good families.
If you want to reach guys like this. Change the Madrassas into something more akin to a western education. More reading writing, and arithmetic. Eliminate the radical shit, and you might have something.
July 20th, 2007 at 1:45 pm>>But how do you get someone like Farhad, who may never have seen a map, change his radical world view?
July 20th, 2007 at 1:47 pmHe memorized the Quran phonetically; he hasn’t clue one about what it says, other than what someone tells him. “Jews are giant bloodthirsty bunny rabbits.” Or whatever. He’s not so much stupid as stupided. It’s been done to him, deliberately.
July 20th, 2007 at 2:06 pmWow, incredible how ignorant they are of the world around them. It makes our awareness of the world so incredible. And more incredible is that the dems are against this war with all the awareness they have.
July 20th, 2007 at 2:27 pmKarzai is trying a program like I described. What’s needed is a counter-radical program. Most of these people don’t have a TV, or even a radio. It would be hard to reach them. Dropping pamphlets designed for people who can’t read and write, might be a start…if Karzai were the author of it.
A more robust counter-jihadi philosophy program is definitely in order.
July 20th, 2007 at 3:05 pmThe answer is “hearts and minds”. Two to the heart and one to the mind!
July 20th, 2007 at 4:30 pmFor as ignorrant as this kid is there are millions like him here in America that as long there is a steady supply of Red Bull, myspace and cell phone minutes they couldn’t care less about what was going on somewhere else in the world. Kids in America have had to suffer through another type of indoctrination via the public school system. Sensitivity training and the like, its more important to be nice than to be right.
July 20th, 2007 at 4:56 pmI wonder if (er hope) the American kids will fight when they find out Akmed is gonna take away the Ipod, the poontang and their momma’s comfy house.
July 20th, 2007 at 7:19 pmRight spot on Bill. I’ve said for years that although we outspent the Soviets on tanks, subs, ships and missles until their East Bloc collapse, they won the cold war in the long term because they got our universities and our childrens minds and our media.
July 20th, 2007 at 7:29 pmjak…nice perspective. I have not thought about that in that way.
It makes perfect sense.
July 20th, 2007 at 9:10 pmI heard about an interesting quote from Tom Brokaw recently. He was in Iraq and he commented that based on what he saw displayed by the soldiers in Iraq that generation (generation Y) may be the next greatest generation.
I beleive that a great generation and perhaps several will be required to take back our country from the liberal scum that permeiates the courts, Washington DC, state and local government and defend our country. We truly have an enemy within, a fifth column. How else can one explain the actions of the ACLU, CAIR, the dumocrat party. the tired old spineless republicans and the majority of university professors? These are true enemies of America and during the civil war these people would be locked up and that’s not hyperbole. Look up what Lincoln did with some of the rable rousing anti war dissenters.
AQ is not the only very serious threat, not to get to far off subject but we have a major economic crisis on the horizon, the demise of social security and medicare. We also have the issue of 30 million or more illegal aliens.
Its going to take some real serious hard work to undo all the damage that has been done by the cancer of liberalism and defend the country at the same time from the modern equivolent of barbarian monsters.
God Blessing and protection to the young men and women willing to serve in the military.
July 20th, 2007 at 9:49 pmIronically, Bill, my stongest hope for this country is for 10% of these returning vets to run for office. As if they haven’t served enough already. I agree that they are our next great generation. And for perspective, compare any vet with any current senator. Sorry, there is no comparison.
July 21st, 2007 at 6:47 am