Robert A. Pape, a Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, is the author of “Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism.”

Commenting on Hezbollah in the New York Times, August 3: full article attached, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/03/opinion/03pape.html?th&emc=th

In writing my book on suicide attackers, I had researchers scour Lebanese sources to collect martyr videos, pictures and testimonials and the biographies of the Hezbollah bombers. Of the 41, we identified the names, birth places and other personal data for 38. Shockingly, only eight were Islamic fundamentalists. Twenty-seven were from leftist political groups like the Lebanese Communist Party and the Arab Socialist Union. Three were Christians, including a female high-school teacher with a college degree. All were born in Lebanon.