Although I hate the kind of emotionally intrusive stories we see after tragedies like this (“How did you feel when you were told that both your sons lost a leg in the explosion?”) and I just hated being assigned to do them as a reporter (I’d usually find some way to weasel out of it), I’m glad they showed such graphic photos.
Because the United States, God love our narcissistic little hearts, inflicts suffering like that every single day on the countries we’re either attacking — “or helping.”
What happened yesterday was horrible. Do I even have to say that? But we’re not special. All around the world, people suffer attacks like this — homegrown or otherwise. (Just yesterday in Iraq, 50 killed.) And the aftermath of a bombing is something Americans needed to see. It’s part of a robust, free press, but for ten years, we’ve seen sanitized images of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the American press. Shame on those publications for helping to sell the wars by cleaning them up.
I’m pretty sure this bombing was a homegrown political statement, and I’m also pretty sure which faction it came from. Only time will tell, but it does bear a lot of winger trademarks. And really, what else would you expect? Look at the huge and profitable industry that’s grown up around whipping the paranoid into a fever. How many “Obama’s coming to take your guns!” do they have to hear before someone becomes determined to Water The Tree Of Liberty With The Blood Of Patriots®? I’m only surprised it wasn’t an assassination attempt.
Life goes on. We’ll start to see tightened security at previously open events, which is always a plus for the surveillance-state apparatus and the many lucrative contracts it engenders. For those contractors and lobbyists, there are expensive dinners to be hosted, cigars to be smoked and call girls upon whose elegant asses congressman and their sponsors will snort coke.
Freedom!
Let’s look at the evidence. Yesterday was Patriot’s Day in Boston. Hence the marathon. Boston is where the Tea Party took place. April 15 is Federal Income Tax Day. The standoff at Ruby Ridge began on April 18, 1982 with the Rivera Helicopter Incident. Waco ended on April 19, 1993. The Oklahoma City Bombing took place on April 19, 1995. Columbine on April 20, 1999. There isn’t any symbolism in any of that now is there my right wing friends? Oh, and Hitler was born April 20, 1889.
Sigh. It’s the friggin Boston Marathon, the preeminent event of its kind. The media spectacle is guaranteed and a crowd assured. That makes the marathon a nut magnet. It is this kind of wild speculation that we condemned in the Oklahoma City bombing. Indictments had best follow the facts.
We don’t know, but I feel in my bones it was some right wing nutjob or nutjobs. I make no apologies for speaking out of turn. That’s just what I think. It could be any of a number of nutters, but this feels like some anti-government nutter.
Most of the people calling for a prohibition on speculating about who the suspect(s) is/are and about their motivations are the usual status-quo or conservative types. But I know of no good reason not to ask who, or why, or what. After all: Is that not what the FBI and ATF are doing?
On the one hand, the event, the number of people attending, and the international flavor of the occasion calls out to al Qaeda. The fact that there were two remotely-detonated bombs reminds me of the Madrid train bombings.
But AQ seems to me the less-likely suspect. If prior events are any guide, American domestic terrorists have slunk away without taking credit for their deeds, and as yet no one has taken credit for this. They like their actions to speak for themselves. As documented by imhotep above, this time in the calendar holds a lot of meaning for the right wing. The last major sports event bombing in the U.S. took place at the Atlanta Olympics, and was perpetrated by an anti-abortion and anti-gay activist. “Liberal Terrorist” is an oxymoron.
Since the reports indicate that the explosive was not C4, there’s little to indicate involvement by a state sponsor or a sophisticated international terrorist group with access to such stuff. This looks like a home-grown pipe bomb kook. The fact that the bombs didn’t go off when the winners were crossing the finish line also indicates to me an inexplicable lost opportunity (from the terrorist’s perspective) for maximum publicity and therefore maximum terrorism effect. So, technical issues getting the bombs blown up on a timely basis? That indicates a lower level of sophistication, unless they had what they thought were specific targets. I have little doubt that security cameras and/or images taken by spectators will narrow things down appreciably.
I doubt the right-wing nutjob would make a bomb. Their thing seems to be shooting.
imhotep, you can increase your leftard credibility by also including MRA attacks.
Homemade pressure cooker bombs, it turns out. Filled with mails and BBs.