Wirt tries to equate the current wave of Palestinian suicide/homicide
bombers with the Japanese kamikazes of World War II.

Let us look at a side-by-side comparison.

Japan was in a real declared shooting war with the government of Japan
exhorting the population to repel the enemy at all costs.
There is no declared state of war between Israel and the Palestinians.
Indeed, the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, has even spoken against such
attacks, in Arabic, no less.

The Kamikazes were military personnel both young and old with varying levels
of flight expertise.  One must remember that towards the end of the war in
the Pacific, Japan's air force had been devastated by attrition.  Their
exceedingly well-trained pilots from the beginning of the war were now all
dead or incapacitated.  There was a huge shortage of men of military age.
The Palestinian terrorists are young civilians, some in their early teens.
There is no shortage of Palestinian men of military age.  They just won't
blow themselves up as they are too busy reproducing and indoctrinating their
children to go blow themselves up in their stead.

The Kamikazes pilots, in military uniform, were flying planes with big
Rising Sun emblems.  There was no mistaking them for civilian peasants.
The Palestinian terrorists are using every means at their disposal to hide
the fact they are terrorists.  They send in young women and kids with bombs
strapped to their bodies, under their clothes.

Whilst many of the Kamikaze were "pressured" into doing their deed by
various expedients such has, little gasoline in the airplane, no parachute,
and sometimes locked canopies, the vast majority were volunteers pledged to
protect their emperor and their homeland. They did not "strap(ped) a bomb on
their
belly."   The planes however, were loaded with explosives.  At the end, the
Japanese even created the Baka, a manned V-1 type machine.
The Palestinian terrorists are brainwashed from birth against the Israelis
and blow themselves up for no real reason except to inflict pain, death and
destruction on civilians.  I also believe the bomb vests are rigged in such
a way, that even if you change your mind, you can't take it off without
detonating it.  This would explain some of the explosions where only the
terrorist was killed, in a secluded area.  Maybe (s)he changed their mind
and tried to take off the vest.

The Kamikazes were directed exclusively at military targets.  Indeed they
would usually seek out the biggest battleship or aircraft carrier on which
to explode.  The bigger the military target, the more "glorious" their
death.
The Palestinian terrorists almost always avoid military targets, preferring
to hit totally innocent civilians usually during such dastardly occasions as
weddings, bar or bat-mitzvahs, grandmother get-togethers, etc...  They
prefer to blow up other kids too.  The younger the better.

The Kamikazes reflected a national sentiment (the Bushido code) whereby
surrender was dishonorable, (death before capture) and were emulated in vast
numbers by the ground troops and in many cases, the civilian populations.
The number of Japanese soldiers who surrendered was a fraction of what it
was in other armies for the amount of losses suffered.  Indeed, it has been
postulated that the Japanese aversion to surrender was the main reason they
treated their prisoners the way they did.  When the US Army or the Marine
Corps would invade an island, the Japanese soldiers would resist virtually
to the last man and even then mount a suicidal "banzai" charge as a last
resort.  As the war got closer to the Japanese home island, the civilian
population would sometimes follow the Japanese military in a mass suicide,
throwing themselves off cliffs or some such method.
The Palestinian terrorists are not following any national trend here.  Only
a few children are being lured into "martyrdom" with promises of
virgins/raisins.  I still do not know what the women are promised in
exchange for martyrdom.  The Palestinian military are definitely not
mounting massive suicide charges and the population is definitely not
following the terrorists, only generating more idiotic children to
sacrifice.

Everybody keeps saying the Palestinians are oppressed.  That is true up to a
point.  They are indeed oppressed but by Arafat and his clique, not by the
Israelis.  Did you know that 17% of the Israeli population is 17% Arabic?
They are citizens and vote in the elections.  They do not want to go join
the Palestinians, in Israel they are free to do what they want.  Not so
under the Palestinian Authority.  There needs to be only one more suicide
bomber.  Yasser Arafat preferably attacking an Israeli Merkava tank.  After
that, both sides can get down to some real negotiations and put an end to
this situation.

And by they way, the Japanese Kamikaze would never have stopped the American
fleet.  They had nowhere near enough planes and the vast majority of
Kamikazes where shot out of the sky before they could hit anything.

Denys

-----Original Message-----
From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of
Wirt Atmar
Sent: Thursday, May 30, 2002 6:46 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: How To Stop Suicide Terrorists... __`_ juspu w ih

Gerald writes:

> I think it is time we realize the implications when we refer to these
>  religious radicals as "suicide bombers". That term carries connotations
of
a
>  person sacrificing themselves for a worthy cause. Since when is killing
>  innocent people a worthy cause? Even the much debated Koran says that
>  innocent people are off limits for revenge.
>  We need to call a spade a spade. These misguided people are without a
doubt
>  "Homicide Bombers".
>  They are in the eyes of any religion, murders and will be judged as such
by
>  whatever higher being they believe in.

It's also important to realize that the term "Homicide Bombers" is an overt
recent attempt by the Israeli government to try to gain back some sense of
momentum in world public opinion.

Nonetheless "suicide bombers" is the more accurate term, and for all
practical purposes the Palestinian situation recapitulates with some
accuracy
the suicide bombers that Japan felt that it had to employ at the end of
World
War II as well. Three thousand young men, 17 to 25, were given anywhere from
three days to two weeks worth of flying training, strapped a bomb on their
belly, and went out to hunt the enemy.

No nation would use such a process unless it felt that it had no choice. Nor
would ordinary young men and women volunteer for such a mission unless they
felt that their deaths would do more for their people than their lives. The
Israeli policy towards the Palenstinians has been one of purposeful
humiliation, subjugation, and legalized theft for 40 years now. In that
context, the Palestinian response is no more or less than what should have
been expected.

Will suicide bombing work? Probably not on the long-term, but it is the only
response left open to the Palestinians, given the great asymmetries in
military power that exist between the Palestinians and the Israelis. But it
is obviously working in the short-term. Israel's vaunted military is
powerless to stop it. The only solution is political, a national policy of
generosity and compassion towards the Palestinians, rather than continued
military and legal oppression, but I have seen nothing about one successive
Israeli government after another that gives me any reason for hope.

The Japanese were able to recruit 3000 volunteer suicide bombers. It's often
been said that if they had begun the kamikaze flights six to twelve months
earlier, they may well have been able to stop the American fleet, given the
natural advantages that a suicide pilot has over a regular combat aircraft.

Although Palestine must draw its volunteers from a much smaller population,
if the situation remains as it is now, I have no doubt that they too could
muster 3000 suicide bombers as well. A great many of the suicide bombers
have
not been "fanatics", rather they have been young men and women who have
simply had enough, and that's the great threat to Israel. You can't fight
such deep seated bitterness with more oppression.

Wirt Atmar

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