Two points: Mike's first sentence is part of a summary that starts the Wikipedia article. The full quote is interesting:
Quote:
Pape claims to have compiled the world's first "database of every suicide bombing and attack around the globe from 1980 through 2003 — 315 attacks in all" (3). "The data show that there is little connection between suicide terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism, or any one of the world's religions. . . . Rather, what nearly all suicide terrorist attacks have in common is a specific secular and strategic goal: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that the terrorists consider to be their homeland" (4). It is important that Americans understand this growing phenomenon (4-7).
I don't know how well this conclusion is supported, but at least it helps clarify what the main kind of strategic goal being referenced is.
Mike's second sentence is not about anything referenced in the article, though.