Terrorism in the USA:threat & response

[Dayuhan]

Just coming from there that town is full of college kids who are sure they know more than everyone else and are infallible.

Those qualities are in no way unique to college kids, and generally don't lead to mayhem on this scale. Possible, yes... but probable?

But if it was tied to an attack on the US government by a homegrown group why not attack a federal building? The event is a international event but if that was your aim than why not attack when the winner was crossing the finish line?

They might have felt that a Federal building would be more likely to have some sort of security or surveillance system in place, and that there would be more of a security presence at the marathon when the winners were coming in. If you're looking for a soft target with significant visibility the tail end of an open air athletic event is a reasonable candidate. Of course a parade would be as good or better, but we obviously don't know the thinking involved. It may have been the most appealing target available in a given time window. It's not just a question of who they wanted to target, but of what sort of target they thought (not necessarily for entirely logical reasons) would give them the best chance of getting away with it.

At this point most of the speculation tells us more about the inherent prejudices of those doing the speculating than it does about the bombing: people will suspect whoever they are personally inclined to suspect. At this point nobody knows: it could be foreign or domestic, it could be from any number of different ideological extremes, it could be non-ideological. Best to keep an open mind until more information is available.

I personally hope it will turn out to be domestic, regardless of ideology, simply because I'd hate to see more overseas military complications, but that's hope, not expectation or assumption.

I do think that as the US draws down in Afghanistan there will be significant risk of major attack from jihadi sources, simply because the jihadis need to keep US boots on Muslim ground, but that's just an opinion.