Tuesday, April 16, 2013

The Politics of "Terrorism"

Yesterday's bombings near the end of the Boston Marathon were a horrible tragedy that should make all Americans sad, regardless of our political inklings. At the time of this writing three people are dead and more than 100 people are injured. What a very, very sad tragedy.

I was watching the events unfold on CNN yesterday, and just before President Obama made his comments the (female) reporter on CNN said that President Obama had come under a lot of criticism for failing to use the word "terrorism" early enough regarding the Benghazi attacks, and should probably do so right away this time. Obama's calling Benghazi an "act of terror" was not enough even for factcheck.org. This is really ridiculous to me.

We don't know who set off the bombs yesterday. If it was a terrorist attack, what was their motivation and why isn't any group taking credit?  I think it is useless, if not counterproductive, to speculate. I have my hunches, but I will keep those to myself, my wife, and perhaps some close friends and family. We really don't even know if it was terrorism at this point. One alternative could be that it was just an sick, angry person behind it. We don't know yet.

So I am in no rush to judgment, and I am interested in hearing the facts that unfold. The facts may wind up be damning to someone, but I am willing to wait to let the facts do their job.

It is also to soon to try to be funny. My cousin pointed out that one way we know this is that comedians are not touching this yet. There will be a time for joking to help us deal with this tragedy, but once again, I will be patient for this time to come.

For those who lost their loved ones, only time will lessen the pain. It seems right to me for us to wait, so that we don't add to the pain to the world. What a sad, sad event.