PROFILE OF TERRORIST MINDSETS SINCE 9/11: IS THERE APATTERN

摘要

Terry McDermott, in his exploratory book 'The Perfect Soldiers', describes the 19 hijackers who carried out the 9/11 attacks as being mostly "unexceptional men", coming from middle class backgrounds and having had relatively moderate and easygoing upbringings, but who later on adopted very radical paths of faith which become their main obsession in life, while abandoning everything else, such as family, career and their own sense of self by devoting themselves completely to a perceived 'higher' cause. Accordingly, McDermott found them to indeed be the 'perfect soldiers', the ones who follow orders impeccably, fully aware of their probable death and self-sacrifice.