My thoughts on heaven

[Wyrd of Gawd]

What's the difference between those guys and regular soldiers in combat?  Both groups are being sent to their deaths.

What's the difference? The difference is that those guys are brainwashed by religion into believing there is a paradise of virgins awaiting them on the other side after they go boom and kill as many people as possible. Regular soldiers aren't being sent to their deaths and aren't sent to massacre innocents (speaking for the U.S. military at least) though there have been many transgressions over the years. They are sent to do a job and safely return. I'm assuming you have a low opinion of U.S. military interventionism. I assure you that I do as well, but comparing regular soldiers to terrorist bombers is despicable.

When you are in the military you are expected to obey orders without a second thought.  If you are on a submarine or a ship and it's in danger of sinking you may be ordered to seal off a hatch even if it results in your immediate death.  If you are on a patrol and come under fire you may be ordered to charge a machine gun nest even if you get shot to pieces.  Dead is dead regardless of how or why you ended up dead.  So if your are a suicide bomber or a regular soldier you are killing and being killed because someone else far removed from danger sees you as an expendable piece of meat for their own purposes.

BTW, the suicide bombers believe that they each get to intercede for 70 of their relatives by being a martyr so their delusions are more beneficial to them than a regular soldier's delusions are to him about "dying for his country".