When war wages between two opposing parties, casualties are inevitable. The goals of the soldiers on both sides of any conflict are to find and eliminate their enemy. But what happens when soldiers put down their guns and ammunition and use their own bodies as weapons?

You get a suicide bomber.

Personally, I do not know and probably never will understand what goes through the mind of a suicide bomber. While most soldiers go into a war with the understanding that they might lose their life in combat - they never even conceive the possibility of blowing themselves up just so they can take out a few of their enemies.

While suicide bombing has been an ongoing problem in the Middle East for years, it was the most recent incident, which occurred yesterday, that made me sit down and write this column.

Yesterday afternoon, twenty-two year old Reem Saleh al-Riyashi walked into a Gaza Strip checkpoint building and detonated a bomb - killing three soldiers and a private guard, and wounding a half-dozen other people. What struck me hardest about this incident was the fact that this particular suicide bomber was not only a woman - she was a mother of two.

Everyone has political views and strong religious feelings, but I cannot conceive how those views and feelings outweigh the responsibility of raising a 3-year-old son and an 18-month-old daughter. In her "farewell video", which saw her wearing combat fatigues with a green Hamas sash across her chest, she discussed her children and how much she "loved" them. "God gave me two children and I loved them so much. Only God knew how much I loved them." But she then went on to say that despite the fact that she "loved" her children, "It was always my wish to turn my body into deadly shrapnel against the Zionists and to knock on the doors of Heaven with the skulls of Zionists."

At least she knows her priorities.

Considering the fact that I am a New Yorker who was a block away from Tower #2 when it fell - and considering the fact that my best friend lost his life in the treacherous attack that fateful day - it is safe to assume that I have immeasurable hatred for Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda. But while nothing would make me happier than to see them all dead for what they did - I have no desire to kill myself to see that happen.

That is why these suicide bombers blow me away - because I do not understand why someone would kill themselves to see to the deaths of others, and no matter how much it is explained to me - I will never comprehend purposely ending my own life for "the cause."

I am sure that when Ms. al-Riyashi arrives in "Heaven" - she will get exactly what she deserves - an express elevator straight down - so she can join her fellow suicide bombers - right where they belong.