Three people dead, at this point, after the bombings in Boston yesterday, and over one hundred and seventy people injured, many seriously and with lost limbs. IEDs on the streets of an American city, targeting the most helpless in their moment of innocent joy.
Maybe you’re like me and you went to bed last night thinking: Well, there’s a lot of rumors and speculation flying around, but by morning things will have been pulled together and we’ll have a clear idea of what this was about. The big surprise today is that this is not the case. There is only a “person of interest,” a young Saudi, who’s apartment has been searched but apparently has not been arrested. We have become accustomed, in the wake of jihad attacks across the world, to know almost immediately who was responsible (at least in general terms) because the perpetrators very much want everyone to know who committed the carnage and why. So either this is the work of one or more jihadis who are for some reason not following the script, or it is the work of some monster or monsters with a different kind of motivation.
The thought that people capable of such despicable evil may still be at large and planning more such acts is no doubt giving the investigators a radical sense of urgency. And here’s to their quick success.