It Has Happened Again...

[exedir]

Another day, and another event showing that we live in a dangerous world. And no, this is not a natural event, it was a planned attack carried out to do damage and kill  people and property.

And yes, it so happened on a date of significance, the Boston Marathon is held on Patriot's Day, a public holiday in Massachusetts that celebrates the battles of Lexington and Concord and the beginning of the American Revolution and, of course, it is, today, the day that we must file our taxes.

As to what happened, how it happened and by whom, we are still learning. As has happened in the past, as an ongoing news event some of what is reported is in error and speculation that does not pan out, is misleading and subject to change. What did happen is at least two people were killed in Boston, many were injured with a nation put on alarm and alert.

We can assume terrorism  We can assume that it was a dedicated individual, individuals that are involved, whose motives we cannot accept as being reasonable and justified. We can also assume that some sort of reaction will be required to bring justice to those involved and stop any further acts in the future.

What we can also assume is our security and sense of security is once again under attack and as such, the point of what has happen, that we are not as secure as we would like, we are not safe as safe as we would like, but we are and can be confident and capable of defending ourselves and our country to deal with threats both foreign and domestic.

[darroll]

They won't do anything.

[Aggie]

Get a rope.

[darroll]

Make em wish that they never sat foot in this country.

[exedir]

We now know what was done, linked explosions load with shrapnel.  And there the story has to start.  

As to who, speculation as of now.  What we can speculate was it was designed and planned to hurt and kill people.  We can speculate that the bomb on the finish line was designed more like a Claymore mine as to how the injuries occurred.  We can speculate that the explosives used were of a high grade in the blasts were of the type that has been used before in attacks such as in Madrid as compared to the 1996 Atlanta Olympic bomb made of nails and black powder.  We can speculate that the event was chosen for visibility, accessibility and difficulty of security.

What is odd is the timing of the explosions, in that it was hours after the event had it's leaders finish with the large, compact crowd of spectators and media.  Presumably the effect of the explosion, the primary and secondary would have been the greatest, leading to a question of what was the command of the devices be they timed or be they set off by direct control, say, by a cell phone, as it was done in Madrid.   Such timing could have been set as giving more get away time, as to leaving the US time, get away and outside of domestic police power.

What can be said is the sophistication is say, greater than the attempted New York Times Square bombing on May 1, 2010, and more like the Madrid attack in March 2004.

Whatever will come of this event, it will do two things; heighten the concerns and lead people to believe that they are more vulnerable.  

[Snagg]

The whole thing is not playing out like an al Queda-style attack - They'd be falling all over themselves taking credit for it, and no one has stepped forward to gloat so far. (Let alone that al-Queda re-igniting our hatred for them seems wildly ill-considered on their part, if they did this. They're stretched pretty thin right now, plus early reports indicate that the explosive used was not the kind of high-grade military-style explosive to which al-Queda would have easy access.)

This is feeling more like a solitary act of hatred, perhaps not even religiously motivated, seeing as how no particular ethnic or religious group was targeted - It was an attack aimed at no one in particular, more of a hurt-as-many-random-strangers-as-possible event. I'm getting a Timothy McVeigh / Unabomber vibe off of this so far....

[TeeBubbaDee]

I agree.

[darroll]

If It’s terrorists, send the diplomats to talk about it.

[Snagg]

Right - Because it all turned out so well the last time we tried that.

[Shadowman]

I would be more impressed if you came up with a plan to pay for the last war we started with that kind of talk. Got a couple of Trillion dollars on you?

[funesthememorious]

I hope a 'white' person wasn't responsible since people will look at me and say, 'There goes a 'white' person, he must be a terrorist.

[Shadowman]

It could be anything from someone that in their mind is fighting the "New World Order" to someone that feels they were slighted in former foot races or something.

All this odd mix and increase of gratuitous violence reminds me of an old psychological study done on rats in a cage where the population was allowed to increase more and more. As this occurred the rats exhibited more and more abnomal behavior and violence. Perhaps the human species has reached their own world population density for that behavior.

[Bob Stepp]

Agree with both Snagg's last posts.