Blunders in Tigerland: Pape's Muddles on "Suicide Bombers" in Sri Lanka

Abstract

No study of the LTTE can afford to neglect Sri Lanka's cultural, historical, and georgraphical backdrop. The lack fo existential awareness of religious cross-fertilisation, the either/or foundations of Western reasoning and absence of local knowledge bedevil the scholarship that incorporates Sri Lanka within their global surveys of suicide attacks. Pape's "Dying to Win" is an example. Here, the LTTE's multi-pronged capacities are poorly evaluated. Too much significance is attributed to the coercive success of SMs in bringing the government to the negotiating table at various moments. Religious persecution has not been the main reason for the Tamil struggle. Comparative references to SMs elsewhere are occasionally interspersed in this review of the Sri Lankan scene.