Terrorism visted the Boston Marathon today:
Go here to Forbes to read the rest. A few preliminary thoughts:
1. Prayers for the dead and wounded.
2. Multiple bombs might indicate that we are dealing with more than one individual.
3. As of now no group has taken responsibility.
4. Today is Tax Day, Patriot’s Day in Massachusetts and Israel’s birthday, a rather wide range of possible motivations if the date has significance to the bomber (s).
5. One bomb going off ten seconds after the first, and the bombs being packed with metal objects, perhaps ball bearings, might indicate a familiarity with explosives of the bomber (s).
6. Why the Boston Marathon? Publicity? A bomber with a grudge against the Marathon?
7. First reports after an incident like this are almost always erroneous in details.
8. Why attack a target where there was going to be plenty of security?
9. Leftists are already attempting to make political hay out of this before we know anything about who set the bombs.
10. If there is a group behind this we should expect more attacks.
The blogs etc. are full of it here – its coming up midday here, happened about 7 am. our time.
Apparently they have detained a 20 y.o Saudi national .
I thonk it interesting that this administration is willing to call this a terrorist act so soon but is unwilling to call the Fort Hood event an act of terror. I don’t even understand the political calculations.
David,
Actually, President Obama has yet to call it a terrorist act or an act of terrorism.
The “White House” has called it an act of terrorism, but those words were never used by President Obama.
In addition, he vowed to prosecute in court anyone involved, ie, use the court system instead of hunting them down.
It is a curious fact that on three occasions, I have been in the near vicinity of a terrorist bomb explosion.
The first time, on Monday 22nd January 1962, aged 16, I was on the embankment of the Seine, in front of the French Foreign Office at Quai d’Orsay, when the OAS plastiqueurs set off a bomb there. Three 5 kg (11 lb) charges of C-4 were used, packed into the mouldings of the facade. Hundreds of windows were blown in. One woman was killed and thirteen people injured.
The second was on Thursday 8th March 1973, when the IRA set off a bomb outside the Central Criminal Court in Old Bailey in London. The bomb, about 14 kg or 30 lb of Semtex, was in a car across the street from a public house called the Magpie & Stump. One bar faces the street and the other is behind it, reached from an alleyway called Bishop’s Court. I was in the back bar, when the front of the building was blown in. In the street, one person died and one hundred and forty were injured
The third was on Saturday 17th December 1983, when the IRA planted another car bomb, similar to the Old Bailey bomb, in Hans Crescent, at the back of Harrods’s, the London department store. I was going there to do some Xmas shopping and had stopped to chat to a friend in Sloan Street. I would have used the Hans Crescent entrance. Six people were killed, including three police officers who had just arrived and were still in their car. One of the dead was an American visitor. Ninety people were injured.
So far as one can judge, they were as purposeless as they were wicked, doing absolutely nothing to advance the terrorists’ cause.
These bombings most certainly have a purpose: to invoke fear. And sadly they pretty much achieve their designed purpose. Now whether the invocation of fear aids in the terrorist’s underlying cause is harder to know. In some cases, they might.
Fear yes, but also outrage. Terrorism tends in the long run to be ineffective as a result unless it is allied with a political cause that enjoys wide support.
I think the amount of fear evoked can be exaggerated.
Talking to Londoners in the aftermath of IRA bombings, including the two I had witnessed, the most common responses were “If it’s got your name on it, mate…” or “If your number’s up, pal…” They recognised it as a small, but real danger, there were no effective precautions one could take and their attitude was one of resignation.
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You never hear the one that hits you.
The Boston Marathon bombs reportedly were similar to Obama FFB Ayers’ nail IED’s that were intended to murder GI’s at a soldiers’ dance at Fort Dix, New Jersey.
Last time I was close to getting shot was August 2012 outside the Empire State Bldg. in NYC. When the loud noise ended, if you were still up (nine civilians were down), you knew it was okay. I’d have needed the brown scivvies if it had kept loud.
Keep moving and maintain a low profile.
A reporter tweeted yesterday that the Boston Marathon bombing was a “local story” and he wasn’t covering it.