WASTE of TERRORISM

[Bill Greenwood]

We don't yet know the cause behind the Boston bombing, it is possible that it is one person who had a grudge against the race.

But more likely, someone with a political/religious cause.

Whatever it is, it is almost certainly a pointless waste, just cruelty without any just cause or any reasonable expectation of any change in policy.

Let's say that the bombers are Muslim with a grudge against the U S/Israel. Maybe they had family members killed by one of our drone airstrikes.
But this bombing, like so much of violence does not specifically target those who did these airstrikes, it only targets the public at random and even more so it will not make any lasting change in U S policy or practice.
For no real gain for whatever the cause is, they were willing to kill an 8 year old child. There can't be many things more wrong than that, no matter what being or persona you believe in.

I remember the Timothy McVeigh case. He hated the FBI, and with some just cause, for at Rubey Ridge their snipers shot a dog belonging to a 12 year old boy,shot his Brother in the back, and the next day shot his unarmed Mother while she was holding a baby.
But in trying to target them, he blew up a bunch of children in a day care center, much worse than any wrong done by others.

There are some good things in our world, but as a society we still have way too much addiction to violence and cruelty.

[FlyingRon]

Or it can be something like Eric Rudolph who bombed the Atlanta Olympic site, several abortion clinics and lesbian nightclub.

Hits home a bit. I ran Boston in 2008 and my family (wife and parents) were waiting at the finish line for me. My son-in-law ran it last year. I had several members of my running club (all safe now) there this year.

[Joe LaMantia]

Bill,

Your right about the stupidity of these acts. One point I would make is that we should make an effort to "understand" the nature of revenge in middle-eastern culture. It's a tribal society where family values include going after people who hurt you, your family, or your neighborhood, it's considered a social duty. This isn't about stopping us from drone strikes or invading another country, it's just doing what is expected by your friends, family and society in general. We have spent a lot of years fooling around in middle-eastern politics which has created a great deal of dislike by the population of those countries. We get blamed for just about every negative condition they experience even though we have little or nothing to do with most. The USA has become a scapegoat for every wrong and injustice that occurs in those countries, it's always easy to some outside evil rather then look inward at your condition and try to fix it. At this point we don't know if this was some kind of organized political group or just another home grown nut job. But stupid acts are a part of human nature and maybe we need to start looking at the root causes. This is just my observation not some kind of political rant, and I certainly agree with your closing statement regarding violence, it's never solved anything.

Joe

[Bill Berson]

I think these bombs were placed in trash cans.
I hope EAA gives some thought about trash can placement at Airventure.

Maybe the cans should be small, perhaps made of see through mesh... Just ideas.
EAA'ers should be watching to see what gets dumped, but not approach the can, call security.
And hopefully security has a plan to inspect these things safely and discreetly.

I hope they don't need to inspect everything at the gate.

[58boner]

Don't think Oshkosh would be a likely target. It's off the radar scope of most of these hate mongers. Actually it's off the radar scope of most non aviation types.

[rwanttaja]

Don't think Oshkosh would be a likely target. It's off the radar scope of most of these hate mongers. Actually it's off the radar scope of most non aviation types.

Offhand, I wouldn't really see "marathon" as a big terrorist magnet either.

Oshkosh could be easily targeted (no metal detectors, can enter without a search at all if one flies in, a membership base that'll resist most security measures) but it doesn't really offer a concentration of people to target. There are a lot of people there, but even during the airshow, they're spread over a mile or so of flight line. The finish line of a race is more likely to have a concentration of people...

Ron Wanttaja