I hear/seen this term used recently. Is it not the intent of bombers to commit Homicide? Would our planes dropping bombs on Iraq, Afganastan, etc be considered Homicide Bombers? This kind of Word Trickery and bull **** just annoys me Maybe I just listen to too much George Carlin Rocket River
Yeah, way too much Carlin! Al-Qaeda's demonstrated goal was to kill civilians. Our bombings in Afrghanistan (Iraq?) have been aimed at soldiers of the Taliban and Al-Quaeda... although it is tough to tell, sometimes, when they all wear sandals and robes. In Israel, the Murdering Bombers are killing kids and old people and civilians of all sorts plus a few Israeli soldiers-- pizza palaces, wedding celebrations, and school buses having been among their targets. That does seem to be different.
Suicide or homicide, the dying is not funny. It doesn't matter what it is called. It is sad either way. I think that we often try to over-dramatize something that really doesn't need over-dramatazation. I mean, people are getting killed because people are blowing themselves up. I was going to make some joke about dumb nicknames but it seemed pretty inappropriate. I think we try too hard (or maybe the media or the government does) to convince ourselves something sucks when it should be fairly clear that a guy blowing himself up and killing a bunch of kids is not good.
I think the intent of using homicide bomber in place of suicide bomber is to shift the focus from the fact that the terrorist kills himself to the dfact that he/she kills a bunch of innocent people.
True Do you think it is because we are so DeSensatised? Esp since these things are happening far away from us? Rocket River
As far as focusing people's attention on the homicides committed, I'd think the word 'bomber' is quite adequate. 'Homicide bomber' is saying the same thing twice, like 'stupid Aggie.' I think the word 'suicide' actually makes the idea all the more sinister because it gives the attacker a feel of being unnatural and/or unbalanced. But, if they want to go with 'homicide' for their propagandistic ends, that's fine. But, it will make it hard to tell the difference between the original suicide bombers and the sort Americans produce. Rocket River is right: American planes would fit the vocabulary just as well since their goals in bombing areas include homicide. (For those who will object, as giddyup has, that we bomb military targets and that's different from what the former suicide bombers were doing, I'll remind you we are talking homicide, not murder. Homicide is simply the intentional killing of people (which still includes soldiers) while murder adds the element of illegality and immorality to the concept.)
Isn't the idea of the "homicide" bomber (as new as it is-- that is surprising) really just spin to put real perspective on a situation. It was we who turned the event into "murderous" bombings, wasn't it? The Palestinians would proudly refer to the "suicide" bombings which seemed to completely ignore the "murdered" victims of these acts of agression-- which most often were many times the number od dead bomb-wearers.
Of course you can bomb something without killing someone, but that's obviously not what these people are trying to do.
Homicide refers to murder over just killing. While both are sad, murder is committed intentionally, with malice usually. Killing is an accident, or for a reason (like killing another soldier in war). You can bomb buildings and not kill anybody, but usually you do.
So a "homocide bomber" is different from simply a "bomber".....I think that's what I was trying to say...
In the grand scheme of things, yes. But when we're referring to the Middle East, probably not. Ah, don't you just love semantics arguments?
So are you saying anyone with a bomb from the Middle East is probably trying to kill someone with it? Hmmm....sounds a little like a racial profile to me. What if they just want to blow up stuff in their backyard?
Looking at Mr. Anti-Jumping to Conclusions jumping to conclusions. If the news is discussing another bomber in the Middle East, it's pretty safe to assume that they are referring to a suicide/homicide/whatever bomber.
IMO I think "suicide" was replaced with "homicide" for a fairly simple reason. When you say suicide bomber it raises questions, if even on a subconcious level, about what would drive someone to kill themselves just to inflict some damage to someone else. Change that term to homicide bomber and you take away that subconcious reaction. No longer do you have people wondering about the causes, just the effects.
Actually, there are far more "suicide bombings" in the Middle East than we are aware of and the majority of the suicide bombers kill no one else in the process. We only hear about the ones that do kill/murder others.
