Suicides

Abstract

In this chapter I turn to another, and in many respects more complex, form of image munition — that related to suicide terrorism, a key terrorist strategy. Suicide terrorism might seem an unlikely form of image munition since it is too obviously a physical-force tactic employed by terrorists to gain a military advantage. However, suicide terrorism also contains a powerful symbolic dimension which is exploited by terrorists to manufacture propaganda around acts of terror. I then seek to conceptualize this symbolic dimension of suicide terrorism with a particular focus on the way in which it may be a source of powerful image munitions, counter-image munitions and remediation battles. After exploring a number of examples of suicide image muntions and counter-image munitions, I examine a number of interventions produced by new media actors with intentions that are distinct from those of al-Qaeda, the Bush administration and the Blair government, and which are further evidence of the complex and unpredictable rhizomatic flow of images in ways that exceed the control of central authorities and that complicate remediation battles.