The 11 Most Mystifying Things the Tsarnaev Brothers Did
motherjones.com
motherjones.com
The absolutely most bizarre thing is that, being "Chechnyan separatists", they attacked the US, precisely the one country they shouldn't have. An attack of Russia, while stupid in its unlikelihood to mobilize popular support for their country, would be at least understandable. Russia is, after all, raping their country every fucking hour. An attack of revenge, maybe against the military or police forces, would be what's expected.
Instead, they attacked the country which they should have tried to ally with, the US. With United-Statesian support, at least they could have a shot at independence, or at least some favourable publicity. There are plenty of reasons for that to happen [1]. The ironic thing is that, even though it was a passional, senseless move, the kind that no serious terrorist planner would consider, it could bring a better understanding, and better publicity for Chechnya in the West. I hope. Or maybe they just ripped to shreds the only good card their country had.
Every terror attack that is attempted, the more convinced I am of Bruce Schneier's views on terrorism: terrorist are fundamentally stupid, emotionally fragile, intellectually lazy people [2].
[1] http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/04/wha...
I figure this probably began with the domestic violence conviction that derailed the older brother's plans for his life in the US. If you come from a society where a given behavior is considered normal and you move to a new society which think that not only is that behavior wrong but that it makes you an intrinsically bad person, well, that's a hard pill to take. More so in that to accept that this is so bad you now have to accept that everyone you knew and respected back home are then bad people.
Or you could just listen to those who say that you and your people are fine, it's just America that's corrupt and decadent. And here's a template for acting in a way that'll make you the hero, rather than someone who blew his chance.
The most American terrorists imaginable, actually. I'm surprised they weren't wearing bin Laden tee shirts or something.
Sure:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beslan_school_hostage_crisis
Ironically Ingush and Chechen islamic terrorists are persistently referred to as "rebels" and "separatists" by Western media, BBC which is perceived as more "independent" news outlet didn't utter once word "terrorist" even during the coverage of the heinous terror attack against children.
People committing acts of terror are terrorists regardless of their aims.
That actually sounds pretty sensible to me.
These guys probably weren't part of some organisation that is trying to achieve political goals through acts of terrorism (e.g. like the IRA) - labelling a pair of nutters as "terrorists" really doesn't achieve very much in terms of news reporting or public understanding.
If a mere pipe bomb or IED is considered WMD, then Iraq was FULL of them. Chemical or biological weapons, not so much.
The solution here is to stop thinking that your definition has anything to do with the long-time legal definition of WMD.
But these particular two guys were attending a top university in the United States so they can't have been too deficient in the IQ department. Why they would attack the country that gave them shelter is beyond me.
For run-of-the-mill suicide bombers I think that fewer brains is actually preferable from the perspective of their higher ups. The less they think things through and the more impressionable they are the bigger the chance they will go through with whatever stupidity they are being tasked with.
Essentially this is an education problem, if you'd manage to get people to think for themselves early enough then you might be able to head off a lot of misery before it gets off the ground.
Unless you meant Cambridge Rindge and Latin, which, while a decent urban public high school, is not to be confused with the prestigious Boston Latin, which is also public but requires admission by way of a highly competitive exam.
Why would someone attack their domestic partner that gives them love?
Some people are ill, some people lash out, some people want to hurt others for perceived (to real) hurt received in their lives.
It's quite likely that I would be a bad terrorist too, but I would at least study the effects of explosives and explosions and how to maximize the result before trying to use them. It's not like there's not a lot of research in the area, given that it's been a priority for the world's armed forces since forever.
They've essentially made WMD a synonym for explosive when we already had the perfectly serviceable word bomb. And now there's no room for a more serious charge (ahem).
I'm surprised a pressure cooker bomb is included.
If that is a WMD then what classification do we give the bombs that level buildings that have frequently been used in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan?
The most troubling thing I find about the prosecution is how they listed damaging interstate trade, presumably to keep the death sentence open. Massachusetts doesn't have the death penalty.
Perhaps the most troubling thing about the bombings is how two people apparently so disorganized successfully carried out a double bombing..
"Conventional ordnance". Military materiel has long been treated separately from civilian scope though. Just try to buy a gun in Europe if you don't believe me, and then compare and contrast with a German Army armory. Military and civilian are two different worlds.
> The most troubling thing I find about the prosecution is how they listed damaging interstate trade, presumably to keep the death sentence open.
A Chinese national died due to this. That's not only interstate in scope, it's international in scope. "Damaging interstate trade" is the Feds piling on, they could probably easily come up with 14 other ways to ensure jurisdiction remained at the Federal level if they felt like it. Even as much as buying a pressure cooker online and having it shipped from out-of-state would be sufficient to allow Federal jurisdiction.
Who made you "the only question we should ask" police?
Also the whole "Numbered List of Things" article format is a cancer on the internet and has been for a long time. It's unworthy of Mother Jones and it's unworthy of this subject.
So much hand-waving in here, and I think that in itself tells the biggest story. We don't know if what this was; but IF it was a false flag thingy, it could and would be explained away in the same fashion. When something bad is done and the media rub it in deeply enough, anything you can say about the hated villain will be accepted as long as it makes them look even worse, and makes yourself feel superior. When worse things happen and the crickets chirp, well, let's go ride bikes.
You can rationalize it however you want, you can moderate, flag and pout all you want; you've been trained well, and your comment is projection. You project your own irrelevance.
Also the whole "Numbered List of Things" article format is a cancer on the internet and has been for a long time. It's unworthy of Mother Jones and it's unworthy of this subject.
Your response is unworthy of that article and the subject. It's not even a padded list, so wtf do you think you're spouting other than sophistry?
I hope that there are people here that do not completely trust law enforcement/FBI and realize that there are shady ties between persons of violent means and the "intelligence" world + power-mad elitists.
I recently found a site called TragedyandHope.net which has some useful info that covers topics from the history of compulsory schooling to "black ops."
These kinds of incidents create a lot of messy unquestioned details that replace knowing with belief, no?
http://www.salon.com/2013/04/25/the_changing_facts_in_the_bo...
(Didn't there used to be a comment edit feature?)
(Used to be able to buy firecrackers stronger than that so it seems like a trivializing definition to me.)
ah, and sorry for the typos.
Debka had another take on the situation:
http://debka.com/article/22914/The-Tsarnaev-brothers-were-do...