The American media went into full-9/11 mode about an hour ago with reports of explosions at the Boston Marathon.
According to CNN, there were two coordinated bombs (near the finish line on famed Boylston Street at Copley Square) that, remarkably, killed only two but injured 46 – many with severed limbs. (Those numbers, especially for the injured, are bound to increase.) It is also reporting that police discovered and diffused one or more devices, begging the question: why didn’t they go off…?
I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before law-enforcement officials catch the perpetrators – not least because they were surely caught in the act by the hundreds of CCTV cameras that covered every second of this event.
Therefore, I see no point in adding to the rank speculation all outlets are offering about the cause of the damage/carnage and about who is responsible.
Unfortunately, we’ll be treated to such continuing, repetitive coverage of this kind – complete with hysterical and utterly unhelpful eyewitness accounts – that you’d think North Korea no longer exists. (Hint: Lil Kim, now’s the time to launch.) And the only reason for this is the oxymoronic belief among cable networks that labeling even yesterday’s news as “breaking news,” or as an “exclusive,” guarantees higher ratings. This, notwithstanding that no network engages in this practice more than CNN and yet its ratings are lower now than they’ve ever been.
Then, of course, there are the “news” conferences featuring politicians and law-enforcement officials doing little more than repeating what TV reporters and anchors have said a thousand times and slapping each other the back, while offering nothing on the only thing people really care about: who did this and have they been caught?!
Instead, I shall suffice to share what I think is the only way to react to such acts of terrorism:
It must be understood that no matter their collective resolve, there’s absolutely nothing our governments can do to prevent such attacks. Meanwhile, that Americans reacted yesterday as if those explosions [in London] went off in Washington or New York should compel Westerners to focus on calming our collective nerves instead of fretting about (or worse, trying to figure out) the motivation for and timing of terrorist attacks by Islamic fanatics.
(“From New York to London, Terrorists are Terrorizing Us to Death,” The iPINIONS Journal, July 2, 2007)
The only wonder to me is that we do not suffer many more of these kinds of bombings – not just from al-Qaeda-type terrorists, but from homegrown wackos like Timothy McVeigh and Eric Rudolph too. After all, this is the first successful terrorist attack in the United States since 9/11/01. Yet nothing indicates how terminally spooked we’ve become since then quite like all of DC reacting to those relatively minor explosions in Boston today by going into complete lockdown….
Police seem to like nothing more than showing off their big guns along the streets of NYC and DC, acting as if they are soldiers patrolling the streets of Kabul and Beirut.
Of course, odds being what they are, chances are that one of these days one of these threats will finally materialize. But I’d bet my life that the big bang will occur not in NYC or here in DC, but in some other area of the United States that government officials seem to think has been inoculated against terrorist attacks.
Given the hundreds of billions Western countries have wasted on post-9/11 security measures (not to mention the lives that have been lost in two stupid wars or the living hell traveling has become), is there any doubt that al-Qaeda has already won the war on terror…?
(“9/11 Terror Alert, The iPINIONS Journal,” September 9, 2011)
Boston today, where next: St Paul?
My thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected.
But the rest of us should really try to maintain some perspective. Al-Qaeda turned Western civilization into a paranoid, gilded fortress years ago. But if we react to every act of terror as if it were another 9/11, this will only embolden every two-bit terrorist (or lone wolf) to detonate his pipe or pressure-cooker bombs. Not to mention the fallacy inherent in bringing the entire nation to a standstill over “terrorist” bombings that killed two people today, while being blithely unconcerned about American shootings that kill 30,000 people every year….
In the meantime, be prepared for more police state-like intrusions, including electronic surveillance and the stop-and-frisk searches that Blacks and Arabs have been subjected to for years.
All the same, if you see (or in this case, saw) something, say something!
Related commentaries:
New York terror alert was a hoax
From New York to London
Terrorists are planning…
9/11 terror alert
* This commentary was originally published yesterday, April 15, at 4:48 pm
UPDATE
April 16 at 9:39 am
Latest reports are that there were only two explosions that killed 3 and injured over 150, and that, contrary to earlier reports, the police discovered and diffused no other devices.