Yesterday afternoon, some coward blew up bombs on a crowded Boston street near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. At this point three people have died and over 100 were injured. It was a horrific ending to what should have been a triumphant moment for these runners, their families, and their friends. So far President Obama has stopped short of calling it terrorism. Others suspect it’s terrorism and some are even speculating that it’s domestic terrorism.
I am aghast that anyone could think it’s anything but terrorism.
Wikitionary defines terrorism as:
The deliberate commission of an act of violence to create an emotional response through the suffering of the victims in the furtherance of a political or social agenda.
Yeah, I know I should never quote a wiki but it’s a good definition.
I would say that murdering innocents is always considered terrorism. Any time some disturbed person goes on a deadly shooting rampage, it’s terrorism. Any time an American with a chip on his shoulder detonates an explosive-laden truck near a crowded federal building, it’s terrorism. Any time some coward leaves backpacks on a crowded Boston street to kill innocent people, it’s terrorism.
There is no such thing as “domestic terrorism.” It’s terrorism. If someone kills someone I love, I’m not inclined to treat them differently based on where they live: it won’t bring my loved one back. Whether a foreigner with a twisted sense of justice blows someone up or a fellow American with a twisted sense of justice blows someone up doesn’t matter. They are both killers and both cowards.
They way to defeat terrorism is to go on living and refused to be cowed by these cowardly attacks. That, and do all you can to bring the bastards to justice.
