Boston and Beyond

One thing that struck me was that it has taken so long for another successful terrorist attack on American soil. Think about that, it has been almost 12 years since 9/11. There have been some attacks foiled that we know about (and I am sure others that we don't know about), but yesterday's bombings in Boston was the first successful one in a dozen years. Kudos go to our intelligence agencies under both Republican and Democratic leadership post-9/11. The price of living in a free society is that you cannot protect every target all the time. This country is just too large, and we have gatherings of people for too many events and celebrations to prevent some terrorist from getting lucky. Perhaps we have entered into a new era where we will have these bombings from time to time, similar to England and the IRA back in the day.

I don't want to sound insensitive, and the three deaths (especially the 8 year old boy) and the wounded and maimings are tragic, but the wall to wall coverage and the proclamations from the Boston mayor that Boston "shall overcome" and "survive" seem a bit much. In fact, it kind of pissed me off. It should not even be needed to be said. Of course Boston will "overcome." It was hit by two poorly made backpack bombs that did much less damage than they could have. I don't think anyone doubted that a city of four and a half million people would "overcome" the tragic and senseless loss of three lives, Mr. Mayor, but thanks for the reassurance. I am in no way trying to diminish the loss of those three and the changed lives of the wounded, but I just found that irritating, overly dramatic and weak. Am I off on that? It just didn't strike me as very Churchill to me. London shall "overcome" after the Blitz from the Nazis, OK. NYC shall overcome after 9/11, OK. This was not on that scale. We can solemnly mourn the dead and wounded without resorting to hyperbole, and by having to say that you shall "overcome" implies that there was a possibility that you would not.

Also, the 24 hour news cycle constant coverage does little other than give validation to the bomber(s). Obviously, report on it extensively that day and night, but wall to wall into today too? The bomber(s) want more than anything else to get the world's attention and instill fear in Americans. As the media continue to dwell on the event, the "evil-doers" (to use some W. language) are getting exactly what they want and encouraging others. (I know, I'm talking about it too. GNABB does have great influence on world events.)

We don't know who is behind it, but I was listening to an expert on terrorism on the radio last night, and he was saying that it was most likely Islamic fundamentalist terrorism. True, we don't want to jump to conclusions (recall that was the most likely perpetrator in the initial reports for Oklahoma City), but he made a good point. If it was homegrown Right Wing extemists, it would most likely be a federal government target. If it was homegrown Left Wing extremists, it would most likely be an economic/business-related target. The fact that the target was a very public event targeting civilians indiscriminately, that M.O. is more along al-Qaeda lines. (Although 9/11 was both government and economic targets, I think the main purpose behind 9/11 was to make the biggest splash, which they did).

Boston was tragic and we need to vigorously bring those responsible to justice. But, the crisis in North Korea and Iran's imminent nuclear capabilities are much more threatening. Suddenly North Korea is not news anymore? It was little reported, but there were Iranian "observers" in North Korea earlier in the month when they successfully detonated their nuke. North Korea is further along than originally thought in getting ballistic nuclear capability. North Korea desperately needs money. North Korean technology has already shown up in Iran, Syria and other such places. Are you starting to connect the dots, here? Forget homemade backpack bombs full of ball bearings. North Korea-Iran is what is scary. North Korea helps Iran go nuclear, Iran hands nukes over to terrorists...that is the real doomsday scenario and what should be keeping our government up at night and the media talking. At least Israel understands this, stating that they will bomb Iran if necessary to prevent them from going nuclear, even if we don't.


ABOVE: Jim Jong Un is a joke. But the people he is potentially doing business with are not.