People in the West claim to be astonished by Middle-Eastern terrorists who blow themselves up in the process of attempting to kill their enemies. Yet we barely reflect upon our own suicidal political rituals. The vast casualties of the First World War were the result of millions of men acting precisely like suicide bombers: allowing their bodies to be blown to bits as they attempted to blow up the bodies of their enemies. The soldiers of the First World War martyred themselves in the name of Gods called France, Germany and Great Britain.