It’s been a very violent and bloody week for this country. First a bloody ending to a national runners event that marred the day by killing and injuring innocent people taking part in the Boston Marathon and Patriot day.
That all occurred on the 15th of April this year.
Two days later, a fertiliser plant in the farming town of West, Texas exploded, killing 14 and the police are still sifting through the rubble to find casualties.
On the 18th of April, the first of two bombing suspects was shot and killed in a prolonged shoot-out with police.
Yesterday on the 19th of April, the second suspect was shot and captured.
America has had a very troubled and busy week in the violence and death department. The denizens of this troubled country can be forgiven for feeling a little abused at the moment.
I wrote a blog post on the day of the Boston Marathon bombings and raised the query of security forces spending too much time looking for evil within the borders of the USA. I felt that they were looking in the wrong place for terrorists.
I was wrong.
Sadly, this terror attack did indeed come from within.
But…
These two heinous and cowardly individuals did not originate in America. They were “immigrants” who came over with their families. According to initial reports, they’ve only lived in America for ten years.
Both, according to the news again, were recent Muslim converts.
Oh boy. That’s going to rock the proverbial boat. As if Muslims did not have enough negative press already, they now have even more and I can imagine that Mr and Mrs America and their children won’t be inviting their next door followers of Islam over for a barbecue.
Another unsettling reason for the non-Muslim community to feel leery about this “foreign” religion and its violent outbursts against “the infidels.”
Overshadowed by Monday’s events is the explosion in Texas that took so many lives. Not – as far as I know – terrorist in nature, it is still an enormous tragedy and one that isn’t getting a lot of media attention due to the Boston tragedy; at least not on this side of the big pond.
On top of the two explosive events, we have the news that guardians of justice move damned fast. Literally within days of the Boston outrage, both suspects have been dealt with. Of course the death of one and the injuring of the other, may make it difficult to find out why these two monsters – Yes, monsters. People do not indiscriminately murder in this fashion. – with the end result being one dead and one captured.
Suffice to say, I think I was wrong to denigrate the security forces and their head offices for watching the American people. It seems that what appeared to me as paranoia, was not.
Now it only remains for the authorities to find out why. Why killing innocent children and people was necessary and why the fertiliser plant exploded in Texas.
I cannot think of a more troubling week of events for America within her shores before. Certainly not that I can remember. Sure we’ve had international American tragedy before. Remember Jonestown? But that was outside the boundaries of the country and not on Main Street USA.
On Jonestown, I had a friend in the USAF who was at the New Jersey air base when the bodies were brought back. He was on body-bag detail. I cannot imagine the horror that must have been.
I close this puzzled post with prayers sent to all who have suffered loss in this last week. Loss of life, loss of family, friends and neighbours and loss of innocence. I also pray that we might find out that the horrid events of Boston were a “one-off” and that other recent converts to the Muslim religion who are US citizens aren’t so murderously inclined.
May the country of my birth breathe a sigh of relief now that the week-end has arrived and may my fellow countrymen rest a bit easier knowing that the keepers of the peace do seem to know what they are doing.
To the residents of both Boston and Texas I hope you can get closure for this violent and troubled week. And my the American people not be so scarred that they become xenophobic in action and thought.
And lastly, may the greatest free country in the world continue to be so and fly the flag proudly and safely.
Related articles
- Boston Bombings Have Led to Multiple Revenge Attacks on Innocent Muslims – Rebecca Greenfield – The Atlantic Wire (theatlanticwire.com)
- Boston bombers followers of Iran’s ayatollah (wnd.com)
- Boston bombings: Media hall of fame, and hall of shame (seattlepi.com)
- Hate Crimes: Man Assaults Muslim Woman Following Reports of ‘Dark-Skinned’ Boston Bombing Suspects (bossip.com)
- Watch: Heroes Emerge from Boston Marathon Bombing (abcnews.go.com)
- Live blog: Boston Marathon bombings manhunt (globalnews.ca)
- Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Boston Marathon Bombings Suspect, Captured By Cops (gossipcop.com)
- Boston Marathon bombing: is ‘domestic terrorism’ to blame? (theweek.co.uk)
- Second Boston Marathon bombing suspect arrested after day of lockdown – Washington Post (washingtonpost.com)
- A Reminder to Be Good to Each Other (theatlanticwire.com)
Agreed and understood. As I just said to someone else, the people of these countries that harbour terrorist’s pay the price and it is sad, obscene and unavoidable. Their governments care about their countries innocent and they pay the price.
I had originally called them animals, but animals do not kill except to eat and protect their young or territory. But, yes, I do agree; it doesn’t seem strong enough.
In a new world (today) we fight in what can only be called a dirty war. As you point out, we are retaliating and fighting in countries that do give sanctuary to world terrorists and it is their population -innocent and guilty – that pay the price. Regardless of what “type” of war is being fought, civilian casualties happen. It is sad, obscene, and a reality. As I stated in a previous post, death of children is sad no matter where they occur, but one instant is unavoidable, the other is not.
Obviously what happened here had nothing to do with world terrorism or any “cause” must two disillusioned and cowardly boys who felt it was their “right” to get something by virtue of living in a free country and when they did not get it acted against their fellow man.
Disgusting.
Until a new name is invented, calling them monster’s works for me but it doesn’t seem strong enough.
The USA is a large country that in its attempt to allow and respect all points of view, we will continue to have terrorist act in our future.
That is the new price of freedom. In my opinion. It is a price most Americans understand in order to be free.
From what I understand the older brother which was killed, became radical a few years ago. Russia did contact the US and warn us about him. FBI did investigate but didn’t find a connection. Oops! His uncle called him a loser and I can see that, with his dream of fighting on the USA Olympic fighting team not realized. He became isolated, uneducated (his standards) and disenfranchised. He pulled his younger brother into this.
Comparing to young boys from different cultures is fair. However, until the countries that are giving safe haven to terrorists that will be a price they pay, just as we pay.
The family knew the older brother had become radicalized and pulled away from him. Until these same people begin doing something themselves about their radicals, then young boys from different cultures will continue to die.
That’s just my opinion today, tomorrow I could see life differently.
No life is more important than others. But in these countries where terrorists dwell they often are the reasons their civilians are in danger as they hide or hide weapons in places where civilians can be killed.
As I said no life is more important, but my life is important to me and I am from the school of self preservation. If that keeps me from being killed so,be it. That’s not meant to,say I,don’t care, but I ain’t ready to go and I value my life and families life more.
I lived through 9/11 since I’m from NY and had a family member killed who,worked in the towers. Tower 1 119th floor. Its a shame when an innocent child is killed (or adult) but at the end of the day my life and familia lives are of more value to me.
Agreed.
The world is the same as it ever was, the only difference is we get to see the events unfold on television. The news that would have taken months to reach us only a couple of hundred years ago are now happening in our livingroom in real time. The atrocities of the dark ages and the middle ages are still going on abeit with modern tools. The sad thing is that in the past 5,000 years of the existence of modern man we have learned nothing as a species.
A random flag and eagle shot from the auspices of google. 🙂
Agreed. I’m just stumbling around in the dark trying to figure out what happened. Thanks for some seriously good feedback mate! 🙂
Valid points all. I can always rely on you to talk relevance and common sense. Thanks mate, as usual! 😀
I agree with everything, but I was laughing quite a bit at that flag picture with the eagle on it haha xD
These guys certainly acted more like thugs than terrorists with a statement to make. I base that mainly on the fairly pointless ambush of the MIT policeman after the bombings and the carjacking chase that ended in a shootout. The Muslim connection may have exacerbated the situation, since the religion is too often perverted into a vehicle for the discontented to vent their violence, but I doubt it was at the behest of any radical group. Just too sloppy and lacking the signs of idealism. Chechnya (hopefully spelled correctly) may be no small factor either, as that troubled state has more than it’s fair share of strife and discontent. I think those two factors are tangential, however, and these outwardly-appearing nice boys were motivated by something else entirely. Perhaps their uncle pegged in correctly when he called them “losers.” I don’t have anything near enough information to make a real guess, but my gut says international terrorism wasn’t part of this. It may have inspired the act, but I think they were operating more randomly than that.
Garry and I share a sneaking suspicion that our two bombers were not motivated by politics or religion but were just miserable little rats. I think one of them was actually born here. Both were long term residents and lived in the U.S. as citizens. I don’t think this was political — no matter how it ultimately gets “spun.” It think it was two wacko losers “expressing themselves” — to my mind even worse. You can’t screen for crazies who live next door and don’t fly the “Crazy People Live Here” flag.
As for the Texas explosion, when the dust settles, it will turn out to be corporate greed and lack of safety enforcement. I have friends in Texas who know stuff. Given the sequester, this kind of thing is going to get even worse — inspectors are always the first to go. My town fired Hector the Inspector a decade ago and we haven’t had inspection of anything since.
Something to look forward to: exploding factories, oil spills, chemical fires. We don’t need no stinkin’ terrorists. We can do ourselves in just fine.
Politics, religions, personal hatred, toys in the attic, greed, indifference, cutbacks .Wow. And the voices, the voices, why won’t they stop????
When it comes to the question of innocents dying, there is no scale of acceptability. Atrocities are, unfortunately, becoming a sad fact of modern life. While I make no distinction between victims, others will stand and look you in the eye and tell you that one is more important than the other. I will not. Both are monstrous events and neither is acceptable. All life is valuable regardless of which side of the hemisphere it is. Cheers mate. 🙂
When I talk about honest examination of the issues, I think it worth asking this question. An 8 year child killed by a street bomb in Boston and an 8 nyear old boy killed by a drone attack in Yemen – what makes a Western child’s life more valuable? That’s just for starters!
best regards
Bill
Agreed (to an extent). I feel that the perpetrators are monsters. We have the same problem over here, but, our disaster was narrowly avoided when they caught the men before they were able to act.
Indiscriminate killing of innocent people is a monstrous act. I do agree that there must be underlying problems there, but after dealing on a daily basis for ten years with the types of people who kill, maim, rape and otherwise harm their fellow man, honest examination isn’t all that helpful. The common denominator appears to be a refusal to see other inhabitants of our planet as not human or “not counting.”
I think the law enforcement folks are heroes to a huge degree. They have a hard job and apart from a few rotten apples in the barrel do as good a job as they are able to.
Thanks for sharing your feelings and opinions. Always welcome and always taken seriously. Thanks mate.
Forgiv me, but I don’t think it is helpful always refering the perpertrators of these acts of terrorism and murder as “monsters” or the over-egging of the law enforcement troops as “Heros” In my humble opinion, it reduces the complex issues to one of comic book fantasy.
Why are young men making bombs in our countries? Why are young men walking into schools & colleges and killing innocent children or students? It is NOT because they are monsters. They do these things because of complex issues that need honest examination.
By slaying or capturing the monster does not solve the problem.