Boston Why did this Happen?

I have been like everyone else this last week watching the events unfold in Boston after the Boston Marathon, or should I say towards the end of the marathon when the bulk of the participants would be returning to the finish line. The whole attack was clearly planned with great precision and with a total disregard for the innocent people who would become the victims of this crime.

The thoughts that I have are what was the point of this carnage was it to protest against our government or US policy abroad or was it  a person who  hates authority of any kind and this was their way of trying to demonstrate against something?? No one has claimed responsibility for the event therefore the whole exercise is just an exercise in futility and malice leaving behind many maimed people several people lost their lives and thousands of people were terrorized. Our various law enforcement departments (who performed with exceptional professionalism and heroism) were totally consumed in their quest to catch the perpetrators at enormous cost to the public purse. All to what end what was the end game what was the point?

The only thing that came out of this whole act of terrorism was our show of resilience and our ability to work together to apprehend the perpetrators of this terrible crime against all of the innocent people just having a day of fun and competition. I was really impressed how methodically the FBI and others dealt with the flow of information although we all like to be informed all of the time they gave us sufficient information to satisfy us that they were in hot pursuit and gave us the confidence that they have the situation handled and they know what they are doing. Which is a very comforting feeling. I hope that any would be terrorist who has designs on committing any such act again will be sufficiently deterred by the excellent response by law enforcement. It was 5 days from crime to catching both of the known perpetrators. I think this is really a feather in the cap of everyone concerned, well done every one.

When one looks at the background of the suspects they had everything to live for and not throw away their talents and lives on the scrap heap of radicals who have gone before them. I am sure that in time we will have an insight about why and how we can get indicators that will allow us to know when we have people going off the rails and we can take steps to aid/help them to take a different path.

But when we start to look at the world and look at the massive unemployment some in countries as high 50% it really is not difficult to understand how people sitting around all day long can be radicalized, which was not the case with these two young men. I realize that the USA and many countries give aid to many of these countries to try to reduce the effects of their very dire circumstances they find themselves in, but we have to make sure that the funds are being spent wisely and not a “piggy bank” for those in power to dip their fingers into the till. I am not sure how we will ever get these third world economies to conform to a code that will allow their people to thrive. My own experience shows that this is really very difficult I have lived and worked in 9 countries around the world and the problems they have are all pretty much the same where the rulers just make sure that their families and all of their cohorts are well-heeled. Look at Egypt, Libya, Syria, Nigeria, Kenya and the list goes on an on. In Asia the take is different, in that the disparity between rich and very poor is some times less; and they are countries that have less problems of exploitation. Of course the best shining example is Singapore where the country is ruled with an “iron fist in a velvet glove” and as a result they have fewer people in jail and less crime in general.

In conclusion I hope that if we ever have to face a similar situation in another town here in the USA, we would have exactly the same kind of response from all concerned and the same end successful result. Unfortunately this seems to be the norm these days when you look at places like London, Madrid, Mumbai, Nairobi and New York to name just a few places.