Terrorism in the USA:threat & response

[carl]

I guess I just can't see a good reason to attack this event. The day has meaning in both being tax day and Patriots day (and probably a hundred other anniversaries that have meaning to someone). 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? I am just not seeing a lot of international value to an attack four hours into the race. Plus no one is taking credit. Political terrorism is usually tied to some aim. It losses value if it is not tied to a cause or is not part of a larger barrage of attacks intended to cause widespread fear and panic. I guess I am not seeing a political or ideological tie in here. Seems murder is as good a reason as any.

There are a lot of reasons to attack this event I think. First, it was an easy target and there was an escape route right there as Bourbon pointed out. Second, picking that particular spot insured there would be video that would be flashed around the world without having to lift a finger, even though the famous runners had finished hours before. Third, that the international types had left already is a good thing if you are playing to an international audience, you made sure you would mostly kill and maim Yanks, the occasional Chinese notwithstanding. Fourth, the Boston Marathon is known throughout the world, just like Times Square or the Twin Towers were so it would play as a symbolic strike at the US. Maybe the marathon isn't known to the extent those were but it is known in a lot of countries because those countries have runners there and their media will report on how they do.

A disadvantage too is all the video available. They had to know that they would be photographed during the event and probably there is video evidence of them rehearsing the route in the days and weeks beforehand. But they didn't care. White hat was so insouciant about it he wore his hat backwards (or maybe he just forgot). But if they already had a good escape route set up, as Slap suggested, they wouldn't care because they might figure they would be long gone by the time the video evidence was processed to the point where their photos were circulated. The names of those guys will be known within hours now but if they are gone, why should they care. Or maybe too they will make a last stand like the guys in Spain did.

Figure this speculative scenario. They do their op and get out of the country by a preplanned route. They make it back to someplace in which they feel safe. That might take a few days or weeks. Then when they get back they make a video 'splaining what they did and how and why they did it. That would play huge in various countries throughout the world. They hit the Yanks and they got out and got away with it. It wouldn't matter if in a few years or months we got them. Their hero status would have already been established and if they got killed they would be martyred heroes.

And then again I may be entirely wrong about it all and it was a couple of guys who were upset because the Starbucks customers had been undertipping them for years.