from an "anybody else".

9/11 used your (Carl's) airliners as cruise missiles. Diabolically clever.

I (as a chemist once upon a time, but long out of the game) look on bombs as ranging from the simple to the complex. We'll eventually see what the Boston bomb-making program was; but, to my not especially qualified estimate, they were on the simple end of the scale. BTW: I've no expertise in bombs;my expertise (at a low level) was how to make mammals very, very sick.

Anyhow, IEDs have been with us for a long time - in Vietnam, booby traps, etc. So, negat on them being a strategic weakness; they are part of the "new normal" (and the "old normal"). BTW: they can be traced, etc.; but that is Stan's expertise, not mine.

My own fears (somewhat similar to Jon's) will be a "terr action platoon", well equipped, well trained and extremely motivated - intent on explosions, fires and well-executed shooting - as in Beslan.

Regards,

Mike