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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 13-Dec-2010
13-Dec-10 News -- Suicide bomber in Stockholm, Sweden, fails to kill anyone but himself

Web Log - December, 2010

13-Dec-10 News -- Suicide bomber in Stockholm, Sweden, fails to kill anyone but himself

Japan rebuilding military to focus on China and North Korea

Suicide bomber in Stockholm, Sweden, fails to kill anyone but himself

A suicide bomber shouted something in Arabic and blew himself up in Stockholm, Sweden, on Saturday, according to the Stockholm News.

There were two explosions, and investigations showed that an unexploded backpack was full of nails. Terrorists often pack nails with explosives in bombings in order to increase the number of casualties.

Although the suicide bombing occurred in the middle of a busy shopping street in central Stockholm, only two bystanders suffered minor injuries. The only person who was killed was the suicide bomber himself.

The news reports do not indicate whether the failure to kill other people was intentional or accidental, or whether the police even know. Under the assumption that it was intentional, this is something that we've seen before.

I've quoted this before. According to a July, 2007, study by the Jamestown Foundation entitled "The Taliban Fedayeen: The World's Worst Suicide Bombers?":

"An analysis of the attacks carried out in the last two years reveals a curious fact. In 43% of the bombings conducted last year and in 26 of the 57 bombings traced in this study up to June 15, the only death caused by the bombing was that of the bomber himself. Astoundingly, approximately 90 suicide bombers in this two year period succeeded in killing only themselves. This number exceeds 100 when you factor in those who succeeded in killing only one person in addition to themselves. There was one period in the spring of 2006 (February 20 to June 21) when a stunning 26 of the 36 suicide bombers in Afghanistan (72%) only killed themselves. This puts the kill average for Afghan suicide bombers far below that of suicide bombers in other theaters of action in the area (Israel, Chechnya, Iraq and the Kurdish areas of Turkey). Such unusual bomber-to-victim death statistics are, of course, heartening for both coalition troops—who have described the Afghan suicide bombers as "amateurs"—and the Afghan people—who are usually the victims of the clumsy bombings.
These statistics also represent a uniquely Afghan phenomenon that warrants investigation."

Afghanistan is in a generational Recovery era, having gone through a massive crisis civil war in the 1990s, and so there's little desire among the survivors for further killing.

The same kind of thing has occurred in the Iraq war. Iraq is in a generational Awakening, and Iraqis have refused to become suicide bombers, forcing al-Qaeda in Iraq to import suicide bombers from Saudi Arabia and other countries in a generational Crisis era. (See the 2007 article, "Iraqi Sunnis are turning against al-Qaeda in Iraq.")

There are many possible reasons why the Stockholm suicide bomber failed to kill anyone but himself. He may have been incompetent, or he may have miscalculated. But it's also possible that he grew up during the Afghan civil war of the 1990s or the Iran/Iraq war of the 1980s and has no desire to inflict on other people the kind of horrific violence that he saw as a child.

Update: Late news is that the suicide bomber has been identified as Taimur Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, a 29 year old who was born in Baghdad, and left Iraq in 1992, according to the Telegraph. He grew up traumatized and surrounded by bloody violence in the Iran/Iraq war, and it's quite possible that, at the last minute, he simply didn't want to inflict that trauma on other people, even the infidels.

Additional links

Since World War II, Japan has avoided rebuilding its military, and instead has depended on the United States military to provide an umbrella of protection. However, Japan's military is about to release a new set of guidelines that will increase Japan's military capabilities, with particularly emphasis on threats posed by North Korea and China. Washington Post

After last week's collapse of the Obama administrations Mideast peace plan, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is ordering Israelis and Palestinians to stop “demonizing” each other and to make “real progress” on their disagreements in the next few months. Bloomberg

Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev called for tough action against the thousands of football (soccer) fan rioters who clashed with police in Moscow on Saturday. The riots were triggered by the death of an ethnic Russian in a fight with men from ethnic minorities from the North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. Members of the North Caucasus's numerous ethnic minorities are afraid of further reprisals from ethnic Russians. Ria Novosti

Ethnic riots continued in Moscow on Sunday. Associated Press

Bankers and brokers hoping to make millions of dollars from carbon dioxide derivative securities had their hopes dashed on Saturday when then the climate change conference in Cancun ended without mandating the use of the "global carbon market." Reuters

Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has survived numerous sex and money scandals, including alleged liaisons with girls under 20 years old. But part of his ruling coalition has turned against him, and he's facing a vote of no confidence on Tuesday. Reuters

(Comments: For reader comments, questions and discussion, see the 13-Dec-10 News -- Suicide bomber in Stockholm, Sweden, fails to kill anyone but himself thread of the Generational Dynamics forum. Comments may be posted anonymously.) (13-Dec-2010) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 13-Dec-2010 13-Dec-10 News -- Suicide bomber in Stockholm, Sweden, fails to kill anyone but himself

Suicide bomber in Stockholm, Sweden, fails to kill anyone but himself

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 13-Dec-2010
13-Dec-10 News -- Suicide bomber in Stockholm, Sweden, fails to kill anyone but himself