Commentaries Claim Boston Bombing Highlights US Anti-Terrorism Limitations

Published in China News
(China) on 18 April 2013
by Qiang Liu (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Stefanie Zhou. Edited by Gillian Palmer.
The two explosions in Boston on April 15 resulted in three people dead and 176 people injured. This is the bloodiest attack in the United States in the nearly 12 years since the 9/11 incident. On April 16, President Obama issued a statement formally characterizing the incident as an act of terrorism.

After 9/11, the United States has continued to strengthen domestic anti-terrorism measures, achieving quite good results, with no terrorist attacks in 12 years. At the same time, the United States has increased global counterterrorism efforts, continually weakening the forces of al-Qaida, especially in the killing of international terrorism tycoon Osama bin Laden, which is regarded as a landmark victory.

Objectively speaking, the United States' fight against terrorism is real, but it is also true that other things are "smuggled in” under the name of anti-terrorism. The negative effects of many anti-terrorism ideas and actions still have not been eliminated. Incidents such as torturing prisoners, burning the Quran and filming “Innocence of Muslims,” which insults Islam, not only worsened the relationship between the people of the United States and Islamic countries, but also further deepened the hatred of some terrorists and terrorist organizations toward the United States. From this point of view, the killing of Osama bin Laden is merely the elimination of a terrorist symbol; the terrorist idea or ideological trend has already been formed and has continued to spread. Some organizations with no actual connection to al-Qaida are using its name to attract attention and grow. This trend reflects both the extensiveness and the enormity of the anti-terrorism problem.

What is more noteworthy is that in the past two years, a type of “lone wolf” individual terrorism has begun to appear, causing the United States to face a new terrorist threat. On Dec. 20, 2012, two Pakistani brothers in Florida plotted to detonate bombs in landmark buildings and crowded places in New York; unable to raise money, they postponed the plan and were later arrested. The emergence of these lone-wolf terrorists has greatly increased the randomness of terrorist attacks, making prevention more difficult.

As the saying goes: Any plan, no matter how secret, always has a flaw. The Boston explosions once again proved that in an open public environment it is difficult for security measures, no matter how strict, to be foolproof. Statistics show that in the first 10 years after 9/11, the number of global terrorist attacks increased almost every year. For some countries, terrorism is still the most important security threat and the United States may still be the main target of attacks by terrorist forces. What is certain is that after these years of hard work, the anti-terrorism situation in the United States has not fundamentally improved. Anti-terrorism still has a long way to go.


  当地时间4月15日,发生在美国波士顿的连环爆炸,造成3人死亡,176人受伤。这是“911”事件近12年后,美国本土遭到袭击的最血腥一天。4月16日,奥巴马发表声明,正式将此次事件定性为恐怖主义行径。

  “911”事件后,美国不断加强国内反恐措施,取得了相当不错的效果,12年未发生有影响的恐怖袭击事件。与此同时,美国加大全球反恐力度,不断削弱“基地”组织的势力,特别是击毙国际恐怖主义大亨本拉丹,更被视为一种标志性的胜利。

  客观地说,美国反恐是真,但借反恐之名夹带“私货”也是真,其反恐理念和方式的缺失导致的反恐负效应至今没有消除。虐囚、焚烧古兰经和拍摄有辱伊斯兰教的电影《穆斯林的无知》等事件,不仅恶化了美国与伊斯兰国家民众的关系,更进一步加深了一些恐怖组织和个人对美国的仇恨。从这个角度观察,本拉丹被击毙只是一个恐怖符号的消失,其恐怖理念或思潮已经形成并不断扩散,一些实际与“基地”组织并无联系的组织借“基地”之名造势并做大。这种趋势既反映出反恐形势面临的广泛性,也反映出反恐的艰巨性。

  更值得注意的是,近两年来,一种被称作“独狼”式的个体恐怖主义开始出现,使美国本土面临新的恐怖威胁。2012年12月20日,美国佛罗里达州两名巴基斯坦裔兄弟图谋在纽约市地标性建筑和人群聚集地引爆炸弹,但因无法筹措资金将计划暂时搁置后被捕。这种“独狼”式恐怖分子的出现,使得恐怖主义袭击的随机性大大上升,防范也更加困难。

  俗话说:百密一疏。波士顿连环爆炸事件再次表明,在开放的公共环境中,再严格的安保措施也很难做到万无一失。据统计,“911”事件后的10年间,全球恐怖袭击次数几乎每年都在增加。恐怖主义依然是一些国家最重要的安全威胁,而美国依然可能是一些恐怖主义势力袭击的主要对象。可以肯定的是,经过多年努力,美国的反恐形势并未得到根本改善,反恐依然任重道远。(刘强)
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