A horrifying video has emerged of an ISIS fighter celebrating the opportunity to become a suicide bomber.
The clip contains a man holding out both of his hands for his animal friend to choose a fist. The bearded man picks his right hand, which contains a white stone, symbolizing a ticket to Paradise. To ISIS, martyrdom is the most exalted thing in its religion and it is something to aspire to.
While its natural for us to label these fuckers as psychotic, experts widely agree that is not the case. Dr. Ariel Merari, head of the Center for Political Violence at Tel Aviv University, has studied every suicide bombing in the Middle East since the U.S. Marine barracks were blown up in Beirut 18 years ago, according to CBS.
“I don’t know of a single case of a person who is really psychotic,” says Merari. “And still, this absolute absence of fear, I doubt that it is a general personality characteristic. I doubt that this person under any circumstances would be fearless. On this mission, to which he was prepared for so long, like a coiled spring that just wants to be released.”
As its common to assume that suicide bombers are overcome with fear moments before they blow themselves up, quite often, the opposite is true. Merari describes being a suicide bomber as being a part of the walking dead, and many martyrs-to-be are elated, even ecstatic before their duty.
Via CBS,
“You probably remember the description of the suicide guy who drove a truck into the Marine Barracks in Lebanon in October 1983. He was described by the guard at the entrance to the compound, and the guy said amazingly, ‘He was smiling.'”
The video below was likely released by ISIS as propaganda, seeing as its been reported that there are fewer and fewer members of ISIS lining up to become martyrs. This is evident in ISIS fighters recently being caught fleeing Mosul in women’s clothing after wives and girlfriends were ordered to evacuate the city, according to Daily Mail.
Iraqi and Kurdish forces backed by U.S.-led coalition support launched a multi-pronged assault this week to retake Mosul and surrounding areas from ISIS. It marks the largest operation is the largest undertaken by the Iraqi military since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.