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Rapid Responses: Rapid Responses published:
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Have you learned nothing?
- Joseph E Morales, MD (15 July 2005)
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Too late, too little, still crowing about victory?
- Vinod K Gupta (15 July 2005)
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participation
- Giorgio Minoli (15 July 2005)
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Remember Northern Ireland is 'home' too
- Mary T Kiely (15 July 2005)
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dangerous naivety
- Peter L Loveridge (15 July 2005)
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editorial policy
- Alfred N Jackson (16 July 2005)
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A larger victory: to tell the truth and expose lies
- Ian Roberts (17 July 2005)
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London Bombings: BMJ Editorial 15/07 /05
- Patrice Raselli Marriott (17 July 2005)
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Sad result of aggression
- Taher Y Kagalwala (19 July 2005)
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Primary and secondary prevention of terrorism
- Iain Chalmers (19 July 2005)
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Terrorism not Fundamentalism
- Catherine J Richardson (20 July 2005)
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Re: Primary and secondary prevention of terrorism
- Michael Schachter (20 July 2005)
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Medicine, morality and politics
- Derek A Summerfield (21 July 2005)
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There should be no more Cakes and Ale
- Dr. Emilio Polo Ledezma, Mónica Andrea Polo Rivera (25 July 2005)
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As Gandhi looked on…...........
- Vinod Patel, John Morrissey (27 July 2005)
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Martyrdom and the Abnormal Psychodynamic of Terrorism
- James Paul Pandarakalam (28 July 2005)
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Few good answers
- Elisabeth McElderry (4 August 2005)
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Evidence and the aetiology of suicide attacks
- Iain Chalmers (7 August 2005)
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Re: Evidence and the aetiology of suicide attacks
- Michael Schachter (26 September 2005)
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Joseph E Morales, MD, Physician Sacramento CA
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The blame for the bombings lies with terrorists -- yes, terrorists, BBC -- who kill indiscriminately, not with the British and American effort to bring democracy and stability to the Middle East. This is no time to prattle on about oil addiction and self interest as if these were the causes of the bombings. This is the time rather to speak out and to take a public stand against the kind of terrorist scum who view life as insignificant and who make a choice to kill the innocent. Competing interests: None declared |
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Vinod K Gupta, Physician Dubai Police Medical Services, P.O. Box 12005, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
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It took a blood-splattering of the facade of the BMA House for a gently chiding editorial to come out of the BMJ. The only glimmer of hope to comprehend this seemingly senseless devastation -- the hopelessly muddled "chain of causation" -- seems lost in the other phrases. The medical profession has a broader much more onerous responsibility beyond patient care and research, one that defies its prescribed boundaries, and is spontaneously nurtured by our closeness to nature and its prime events--birth and death. Just like medical researchers who never acknowledge the errors in their thinking about their favourite hypotheses, because of proximity to "causes" and personal pride, politicians will neither ever see nor acknowledge the errors of their thinking. The salute is to testosterone that makes us feel we are always right... Straddled between emotion and reason thrust into sobbing Septembers, afresh or forgotten no hour day or month left hallowed; come, to the dungeons of semantics bathe in rhetoric, palpate my brutalization at the fountainhead of sorrow, yet again. Salute the strut, the preen, the fig-leaves molted now into gracefully dimpled cravats the vacuous in vacuum around the table round; the coerced and the coercing in consensual nelson;...(1) Ill-fated consensus, by accident, design, or silence is consensus. Blood does not form rainbows... when... ...bile blood tears sweat pain sorrow delight wisdom form rainbows; then will I accept the lobotomy of color race polity nationality religion and their offsprings, belief and rhetoric that stoke fires between them and us;...(2) Social (global) injustice is like atherosclerosis, a continuous process, while manifestations like September 11 and July 7 are merely stuttering events. We do not manage atherosclerosis during (ischemic) events, we merely manage its consequences. And what of atherosclerosis of the mind (not vessels) when the impact of human misery is graded by its proximity? We are now in the consensual nelson of our own rhetoric. References: 1. Gupta VK. Ode to Chad. Available at: Poetry.com 2. Gupta VK. When. Available at: Poetry.com Competing interests: None declared |
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Giorgio Minoli, Director Gastroenterology Unit Ospedale Valduce Via Dante 11 22100 COMO
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I appreciate your efforts and share your pain giorgio minoli. Como Competing interests: None declared |
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Mary T Kiely, Consultant in Palliative Medicine Huddersfield, HD 3 3JG
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How crass and thoughtless of you, and many others, writing in the BMJ this week, to forget about the UK's previous experiences with terrorism. I was as appalled as any by the atrocities in London last week (I know at first hand what it is to lose a family member to terrorists), but for the BMJ to entitle this issue as it has, is an insult to its many readers who live and work in Northern Ireland, or have done in the past, and who have had to deal with similar events over the past 30 years. Where was the public, national outrage after Bloody Friday, or McGurk's Bar, or Omagh, or even Birmingham? I am aware that those working in BMA House that day are to be commended for their efforts, and I seek not to detract from that, nor to dismiss the pain of the victims and the bereaved, but please remember that, sadly, with over 3000 deaths in the Troubles, horrors you experienced on your 7/7, hit home many years ago for others. Competing interests: My brother was murdered by loyalist gunmen in Belfast in 1975 |
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Peter L Loveridge, general practitioner glenwood nova scotia B0W 1W0
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Unfortunately, Dr Godlee perpetrates a common myth, in that she implies the root causes of islamic terrorism are poverty and distress caused by western democracies. The west has nothing to do with this. The sorry state of most of these countries is caused by corrupt and despotic governments, and aided by a backward radical clergy that has no concept of human rights and whose idea of an ideal state would be similar to Afghanistan under the Taliban. This is a fundamental and evil corruption of what the Prophet actually preached. There should be no negotiating with these people, as they do not want peaceful co-existance, but would rather exterminate those that don't agree with them Peter Loveridge Competing interests: None declared |
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Alfred N Jackson, Primary care physician Bulawayo Zimbabwe
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Is it BMJ editorial policy to publish political judgments? Competing interests: None declared |
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Ian Roberts, Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
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Editor- You were correct and courageous in alluding to the contribution of the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq in the chain of causation leading to the London bombings of July 7th.(1) Imperialist violence is almost always answered by violence, although like an echo is never quite as intense. You were in good company. George Galloway, who was expelled from the Labour party for telling the truth, made the same point last week, but was vilified by our elected representatives for doing so. But correct analysis after the fact is a small victory. Our responsibility as doctors and citizens is to prevent barbarous acts of state violence and their inevitable consequences and not to collude in them. In the run up to the war on Iraq, most leading medical journals, were too eager to enlist in the government’s propaganda corps, publishing articles that gave credence to the fiction of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and large scale bio-terror at a time when UN inspectors were vigorously denying their existence.(2) You also alluded to role of self interest and oil in our "dismal involvement in the Middle East." Another small victory. A larger victory would have been to have said this loudly and clearly before the bombing began and in the front of the journal rather than at the back.(3) And one has to be continually vigilant. Which is truly most important? For all doctors to know the basic management of patients injured by explosive blasts, as claimed by last week’s editorial.(4) Skills that few doctors will use in a lifetime of medical practice. Or for all doctors to know how to "seek the truth lying hidden behind the veil of distortion and misrepresentation, ideology and class interest through which the events of current history are presented to us."(5) Skills we can all use every day. References 1. Editors Choice. BMJ 2005;331 2. Roberts I. Medical journals may have had role in justifying war. BMJ 2003;326:820 3. Roberts I. The second gasoline war and how we can prevent the third. BMJ 2003; 326: 171. 4. Chaloner E. Blast injury in enclosed spaces. BMJ 2005:331:119. 5. Chomsky N. The Chomsky Reader. Serpent’s Tail, London, 1995. Competing interests: None declared |
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Patrice Raselli Marriott, Non-Executive Director and Ph.D Researcher 101 Leopold Street South Yarra, Victoria, Australia
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The Editorial neatly summarises the resilience that I admire in British people. I was in tears as I read it. Having been recently in London,(a visitor from Australia, but someone who has lived in London for 6 years) and staying a mere stone's throw from Tavistock Square and a daily passenger on the tube from Russell Square, I am grieving too. Thank you for continuing the BMJ tradition of publishing in adversity and by so doing reminding us of the goodness and potential of humankind. Competing interests: None declared |
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Taher Y Kagalwala, Pediatrician Saifee Hospital, India
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As an Asian Muslim, I am deeply pained by the way in which British Muslims, devoid of any compassion or conscience, attacked innocent fellow citizens in an orgy of violence and mayhem. The editorial by Godlee has, very correctly, laid the blame on a multitude of factors, not unlike the way we physicians pin the causation of modern diseases on many known as well as unknown factors. Terrorism, like diabetes, cancer or atherosclerosis, is a modern disease that has its roots in more or less the same things as the diseases aforementioned - viz. greed, the search for identity and need for being recognised as an upright individual, a lifestyle that seeks instant gratification, drugs, smoke, alcohol (in the case of the "devout Muslim terrorist", perhaps not the last of these) and a compulsion to annihilate oneself at any cost so as to be covered in glory by peers and underlings. What happened on 7/7 can never be forgotten, but as another viewpoint put it, terrorists are not just limited to the UK ... we, i.e. the Indians, have always been living under its shadow for the past over twenty -five years! However, the spirit of the people remains high, and life goes on. I offer my heartfelt condolences for the dead and raise my thumb to Godlee and the BMJ team for heroism amidst adversity. Competing interests: None declared |
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Iain Chalmers, Editor James Lind Library
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It is often suggested that prevention is better than cure, and that primary prevention is better than secondary prevention. If this is so, then Fiona Godlee is right to consider the steps that may be needed to engage in primary prevention of terrorism, if only because there are so many examples of recent failures to contain the problem with measures aimed at secondary prevention. Because so much is at stake, it would seem normal that health professionals who are concerned to minimise loss of lives and limbs through terrorism should engage in constructive discussion about the relative effectiveness of these options, as encouraged implicitily by Dr Godlee. Predictably, however, Dr Godlee's editorial note has provoked a hostile reaction from some who believe that terrorism will be defeated only by strengthening current policies aimed at secondary prevention. Indeed, some have made clear their view that medical journals have no business giving space to political comment which has relevance to the protection of life and health. Both the recently published report by the Royal Instiute of International Affairs (http://www.riia.org/) and the ICM poll done for The Guardian published earlier this week (http://politics.guardian.co.uk/polls/) confirm Dr Godlee's contention that "this country's dismal involvement in the Middle East" has increased our vulnerability to outrages of the kind she witnessed at first hand last week. I applaud her attempt to raise the abysmally low level of debate about how we can protect lives from the effects of further terrorist outrages. Iain Chalmers Competing interests: I have Israeli and Palestinian friends who believe that the current policies of Britain, the United States and some other 'great powers' in the Middle East are incompatible with peaceful coexistence of Palestinians and Israelis. |
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Catherine J Richardson, SpR Obs Gynae Sheffield S!0
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Editor Congratulations on your small victory. I am sure I am not alone in being a weekly recipient of the BMJ who usually only reads articles pertinent to my own speciality. This week I was gripped by the editorials and personal accounts of the impact of the bombings on staff at the BMA house. Thank you. I share your concern about the chain of causation that led to these events, in particular the UK's less than transparent involvement in the Middle East and our self interest and greed. I am however deeply concerned about your reference to the "evil of fundamentalism of all creeds", both in the imprecise use of the word "fundamentalist" and in the lumping together of all creeds as evil. A fundamentalist is just someone who believes in the fundamentals of their creed or world view. The vast majority of Muslims who have a fundamentalist belief in their religion would never condone violence. The Qu'ran, however, does seem at best ambiguous about whether violence can or should be used in certain circumstances. Some other creeds teach that retaliating with violence is never acceptable and Jesus Christ taught that we should instead "turn the other cheek". Therefore to suggest that "Fundamentalist" Christians (those believing and following the teaching of the Bible) are evil and should be grouped with suicide bombers is offensive. Should we not be equally concerned about those who hold fundamentalist secular liberal views? (i.e. those who are intolerant of anyone who has any belief or creed other than that of holding NO religious belief.) The unthinking dismissal of other creeds without engaging in discussion about what they are believing or doing is surely part of the "chain of causation" that "gives excuse" to some Muslims with extreme views acting in the way they have. Yours sincerely Catherine Richardson SpR Obstetrics and Gynaecology, North Trent. Competing interests: None declared |
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Michael Schachter, Senior lecturer in Clinical Pharmacology St Mary's Hospital W2 1NY
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The underlying premise of this response, as of the editor's own articele and still more of Professor Roberts' enthusiastic apologia for the murderers, is that appeasement is always the right answer to aggression. This is couched in terms like "understanding" and "seeking the causes" or some other camouflage, but that is the reality. This attitude seems impermeable to facts, either present or historical. I am not sure how Mr Chalmers' friends think that present policies prevent co-existence between Israelis and Palestinians: this is usually code for the fact that the United States in particular is not willing for Israel to be destroyed. In the wacky world of the editor and her fans we would at any moment be able to understand the nature of Nazism and would be close to formulating a strategy to "engage" Herr Hitler's successors. Although Blair is hardly Churchill he is at least unlikely to indulge in this form of pathological self-abasement, having detached himself from the central tenet of Western pseudo-liberalism: in any crime it is always the victim's fault. Competing interests: None declared |
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Derek A Summerfield, hon sen lecturer Instit of Psychiatry Maudsley Hospital, london SE5
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I too write to commend the new editor of the BMJ on her editorial about the London bombings. The medical profession surely have a duty beyond a narrow technical remit- not just to treat disease, but to speak out about the political and economic factors that promote disease and distress worldwide. If the practice of medicine ignores this wider role,we lose the opportunity to be the moral agents our public standing appears to promise. One thread running through the published work of Noam Chomsky and Edward Said,non-doctors but moral agents and truth tellers of the highest calibre,has been about the extent to which the professions and academe in the Western world (supposedly "free")have never delivered on what they appeared to promise- an independent pole of social and moral authority- and have typically thrown their weight in support of the dominant order and its power.I'm afraid this indictment includes the medical profession, which has always tended to be closer to those with money and influence than to those without. However we are lucky to have the BMJ and The Lancet, whose track record reveals their commitment to this wider, humanistic duty. Long may it be so. I would add that those correspondents who have objected to the Godlee editorial are really just unhappy with the idea that the bombings here could be connected to Western policy in the Middle East- to our disgraceful conduct in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in Israel/Palestine.How could they not? Competing interests: None declared |
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Dr. Emilio Polo Ledezma, Biochemistry Ph.D. Health's Faculty of the Surcolombiana University, Mónica Andrea Polo Rivera
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After the second world war few countries in the world have had a quieter history than England. If we read it, we can conclude that the political processes have been peaceful, in accordance with the basic principles and laws of this nation. Only in ancient times was its history marked by violence that produced widespread terror. The early inhabitants suffered from several invaders: the Romans who stayed for nearly four hundred years, the Anglo-Saxons who made it England, the Danes who made it part of the Danish Empire and the Normans who made it part of their possessions. After this, the land of genius like Shakespeare, Spenser, Marlowe and Bacon became the sole possession of the English kings. The last period of England's history is characterized by a very peaceful transfer of power from them to the people and their representatives through a slow, laborious by strong process of rational democrative discussion in meetings at the supreme legislative body. With the violent attacks committed by fanatics to busy, wealthy and crowded London, people have begun to complain about the exaggerated freedom of movements from one country to another. In this new episode of terrorism and barbarism, I’m sorry not only for the deaths of tens of innocent civilians and the destruction of the transport systems, but also with the possible end of several concepts and ideas. Europe has begun to think seriously about if it agrees or not to maintain always open doors to its house. Another returned concept is the finish of perpetual tolerance with minority groups. So many terrorist attacks have located the problem in an ideological virus. I feel now very worried with the actual political and religious situation in the world. Terrorism overtakes us faster than we can be prepared. But I’m sure that freedom, truth, courage, a strong determination to defend the world against terrorists and justice will be to live at all. Congratulations for your small, but a big victory for all the world bmj family. The Lord has helped us once again. Competing interests: None declared |
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Vinod Patel, Consultant Physician George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust CV10 7DJ, John Morrissey
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We were moved by Fiona Godlee’s editor’s choice published in the BMJ 16 July 2005. It was irony that the terrorist bomb on number 30 bus on thursday the 7th of July 2005 happened in Tavistock Square near BMA house where there is one of the few rare statues of Mahatma Gandhi sitting in quite comtemplation. Gandhi had declared as a principle of his life that: “I want the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet” “What difference does it make to the dead…whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?” For us all that wish for political change we should echo the sentiments of modern architects of seismic shifts in political arraignment, Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk. The peaceful negotiations they presided over avoided bloody conflict and created an enduring democratic political environment that serves the interests of all South African society. Nelson Mandela said “Gandhi’s Spirit…might be the key for human survival in the twenty-first century”. Dr Vinod Patel MD FRCP, Reader in Clinical Skills, Warwick Medical School, George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust, Nuneaton CV10 7DJ Dr John Morrissey MA MRCP, Clinical Lead for Diabetes, George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust, Nuneaton CV10 7DJ BMJ editor’s choice A Small Victory BMJ 2005;331 Quotations of our time. L Peter. ISN 0748101802 Black Cat 1988 Gandhi. Peter Ruhe Phaidon Press Ltd, London, UK 2001 Competing interests: None declared |
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James Paul Pandarakalam, consultant psychiatrist St Helens North CMHT, Peasley Cross Resource Centre, St Helens, Merseyside WA 9 3DA
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In these days religion is very often hijacked by politicians and this has resulted in the blurring of ethical perceptive and blunting of moral judgement. People have started wondering whether it is faith or its absence that is responsible for the problems of today’s world. Terrorism has made the concept of martyrdom controversial. T.S Eliots has commented “…….a martyrdom is never the design of men; for the true martyr is he who has become the instrument of God, who has lost his will in the will of God, not lost it but found it, for he has found freedom in submission to God. The martyr no longer desires anything for himself and not even the glory of martyrdom.” If terrorism generates fear and aggressive feelings, martyrdom involves forgiveness and love. A broad theme of martyrdom and self-sacrifice is found in most religions. “Sacrifice” in Latin means to “to make sacred”. Martyrdom did not exist in pagan antiquity but sacrifice of other people was practised as bloodletting was the foundation of pagan religious cults. Abrahamic religions have glorified martyrdom and Vedic Hinduism is silent about self-sacrifice. Gandhi, though a Hindu Brahmin was very much influenced by Christian ideology when he showed readiness for self sacrifice during the freedom struggle. Historically, an ambitious king of Kerala (South India) had an army of suicide soldiers-Chaverpada nearly two centuries ago. The “ Kamikaze” pilots participated in suicide attacks against American Ships in the Pacific in world war ii and Tamil tigers who described themselves as having mind like steel and heart like the petals of a flower, made more than 200 murder- suicide attempts in Sri Lanka. Terrorism involves execution of mass murder and suicide. The terrorist sacrifices his life to portray that his victims are the guilty ones. In a terrorist self-sacrifice one can sometimes perceive a counter- phobic attitude. The person who commits suicide has secret doubts about the validity of the beliefs that he is trying to defend. These doubts frighten him so much that instead of facing them, he chooses an easier option to throw himself into the arms of death. One may note that some of the terrorist candidates are recent converts to their new faith. The ideological ambitions give way to greed, and new economic, political and religious goals replace early passions that united the group. We may have to develop an empathy with the terrorist assassins to understand how terrorists were radicalised in the first place without confusing sympathy for empathy. There is no major individual psychopathology involved in the leaders of terrorist group, but there is a group psychopathology. Those suffering from mild psychiatric problems are drawn towards such fanatical groups. It is too simplistic to say that terrorists are masochistic or sadistic people. In the clinical sense, if helplessness and hopelessness are the hallmarks of an active suicidal patient, terrorist mind is in no way relate to individual clinical psychopathology of conventional suicide. A Darwinian basis of terrorism has been postulated. Primitive portion of human brain has still a location responsible for aggressiveness and revenge, and in cultures motivated more by hate of others than love of higher values, these locations are activated by collective faith.2. They are brain- washed on myths of self-sacrifice. The terrorist leaders use unethically psychological techniques of mind control to manufacture mass murderers. The newer communication technologies have facilitated terrorist activities. Terrorists make carnage of non-combatants their main tactic whereas regular armiesrarely do that. They are mass murderers whose ideology is entirely opposite to the universal doctrine of “ Live and let live”. Both the martyr and terrorist believe in life after death and an eternal reward; the martyr dies so that other people might also share their reward and the suicide- terrorist are concerned only about their reward. The key element leading to fulfilment of suicide terrorism lies in perverting a healthy religious faith by diffusing the natural fear of death and the punishment for terrestrial misdeeds; two normal ingredients serving as suicide stoppers. The suicide terrorists are tempted and brain washed with the idea of painless death and an instantaneous heavenly reward. Many religious sections would be sceptical about the blind belief of an immediate reward awaiting the discarnate terrorists. In the scientifically evaluated Marian apparitions of 20th century 3, Mother Mary has reaffirmed the involvement of negative entities in the aetiology of war and terrorism. This new insight points towards an abnormal para-psychodynamic for terrorism: anything totally destructive originates in the negative spritistic dimension. If God attests martyrdom, terrorism is endorsed by human leaders and orchestrated in the negative spiritistic realm but that does not exclude individual responsibility for evil behaviour. Parapsychology has recently sent exploratory pseudopodia into the field of discarnate survival that traditionally belonged to the theologian and the philosopher. World religions should also try to reorient themselves with the newly gained wisdom of the survival researchers.4 It is the privilege of the medical profession to prolong life span and improve the quality of life and these two responsibilities justify the medics’ involvement in peace oriented politics. References: 1 Godlee Fiona. A small Victory. BMJ, 2005.331. 2.Rona M. Fields The Psychology, Theology and Politics of self-sacrifice. Praeger Publications. New York.2004. 3.Pandarakalam James Paul (2001). Are the Medjugorje apparitions real? Journal of scientific exploration, Vo15 no2 4.Braude E Stephen . Immortal Remains, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, New York.2003 Competing interests: None declared |
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Elisabeth McElderry, Chair, Medact Litchdon Medical Centre, Devon, EX32 9BZ
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EDITOR – We agree that there are many questions but few good answers about the chain of causation that led to the suicide bombings in London on 7 July. It may be much easier than we realised to recruit ordinary, reasonably prosperous and well-educated young men to carry out such actions [2, 3]. It is essential to deal with the causes if further attacks are to be prevented. We share the widespread view that the UK involvement in the war in Iraq was at least one of the motivating causes. Including the invasion period, the increase in civilian deaths up to September 2004, mainly from air strikes and excluding the first assault on Falluja, was estimated at around 98,000 (95% CI 8000-194,000) [4]. A recent careful study suggests that since the end of official hostilities almost 25,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed and over 42,000 injured. [5]. It is surely impossible to expect British citizens to dismiss the Iraqi civilian deaths as simply “collateral damage”. While the methods of suicide bombers are totally unacceptable - the London bombings were quite clearly criminal acts - the grievances of the perpetrators may be genuine and shared by many others. In the long run the response to such attacks will have to include dialogue with all involved, and dialogue will have to be followed by effective action. The presence of coalition forces in Iraq and a resolution to the situation in the Middle East would have to be points of discussion. Meanwhile reasonable security measures will be essential. We have been reminded in recent weeks of the need for these security measures to respect civil liberties and human rights. Our thoughts and good wishes for recovery to all who are suffering as a result of the London bombs. Medact, The Grayston Centre, 28 Charles Square, London N1 6HT info@medact.org Competing interests: none declared 1. Godlee F. A small victory. BMJ 2005; 331: no page given. (16 July.) 2. Giles J, Hopkin M. Psychologists warn of more suicide attacks in the wake of London bombs. Nature 2005; 436: 308-9. 3. Bond M. The ordinary bombers. New Scientist, 23 July 2005: 18. 4. Roberts L. Rafta R, Garfield R, Khudhari J, Burnham G. Mortality before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: cluster sample survey. Lancet 2004: 364: 1857-64. 5. Iraq Body Count/Oxford Research Group. A dossier of civilian casualties in Iraq, 2003-2005. Oxford: Oxford Research Group, 2005. Competing interests: None declared |
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Iain Chalmers, Editor, James Lind Library Summertown Pavilion, Middle Way, Oxford OX2 6HX
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Some people are clearly outraged by Fiona Godlee's suggestion that the recent suicide-terrorist attacks in London reflect UK policies in the Middle East. Indeed, I gather that some members of the BMA have called for her to resign as editor of the BMJ. In the light of the available evidence, these reactions to Dr Godlee's suggestion are themselves outrageous. The world's most comprehensive database on suicide-terrorist attacks has been assembled by Professor Robert Pape, a political scientist at the University of Chicago. He has drawn on his analyses of the database for his recently published book 'Dying to Win' (Random House, 2005). In a recent interview for The American Conservative (11 July), Professor Pape explained that: "The central fact is that overwhelmingly suicide-terrorist attacks are not driven by religion as much as they are by a clear strategic objective: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from the territory that the terrorists view as their homeland. From Lebanon to Sri Lanka to Chechnya to Kashmir to the West Bank, every major suicide-terrorist campaign - over 95 percent of all the incidents - has had as its central objective to compel a democratic state to withdraw... "...Not every foreign occupation has produced suicide terrorism. Why do some and not others? Here is where religion matters, but not quite in the way most people think. In virtually every instance where an occupation has produced a suicide-terrorist campaign, there has been a religious difference between the occupier and the occupied community. That is true not only in places such as Lebanon and in Iraq today but also in Sri Lanka, where it is the Sinhala Buddhists who are having a dispute with the Hindu Tamils." Those who have criticised Dr Godlee should consider Dr Pape's interpretation of what appears to be the best evidence currently available about the aetiology of suicide-terrorist attacks. They should either show how his analysis is flawed, or recognise that ill-informed bluster will do little to reduce the likelihood of further outrages comparable to or worse than that which Dr Godlee witnessed at first hand on 7 July. Iain Chalmers Competing interests: None declared |
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Michael Schachter, Senior lecturer in Clinical Pharmacology St Mary's Hospital W2 1NY
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Sir Iain Chalmers' outrage is misdirected. Those of us who objected to Godlee's editorial did so for two reasons. First, because of the implication, not unusual among the so-called left like John Pilger, that grievances about British foreign policy somehow justified the murder of over 50 commuters in London. Secondly, the even stronger implication that even if the writer was not too happy about the methods used she was largely in sympathy with the bombers' objectives. This is part of a consistent pattern since the departure of Richard Smith of choosing "representative" contributors like Ian Roberts and Derek Summerfield who consistently produce anti-American and anti-Israeli propaganda under some spurious medical camouflage. The message is that if we handed Afghanistan back to the Taleban, Iraq to al-Zarkawi and assisted in the liquidation of the Jewish population of Israel then enlightened intellectuals could enjoy their organic muesli without all these tiresome policemen around threatening to infringe their civil rights. Competing interests: None declared |
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