Americans, Nothing Happened

After the Tragedy in Boston

It’s understandable how big of a shock the massacre, which occurred during the marathon in Boston, was in the U.S. It was the first time since Sept. 11, 2001, that terrorists had “succeeded” in an attack on American soil.

All terrorist attack attempts subsequent to Sept. 11 had been successfully prevented. Mass fear was gradually subsiding. It had even been proposed to allow passengers to carry knives on board planes. Now authorities are again reinforcing the protection of government buildings and public gatherings. Adding further to the caution was that, in addition, letters laced with poisonous substances were sent to the White House and Congress just after the attack, although those events coincided accidentally, according to the police.

It’s still not known who the perpetrator is. Suspicions didn’t turn automatically on Islamic extremists as it did just after the attack of 9/11. It’s supposed that domestic terrorists, who have come mainly from the extreme right wing for a long time, can equally be behind the attack. The bombs in Boston exploded a couple of days before the 20th anniversary of the FBI attack on the site of David Koresh’s sect in Waco, Texas, where more than 80 members were killed. Two years later Timothy McVeigh blew a government building in Oklahoma City up “in retaliation,” killing 168 people. Today the political polarization in the U.S. is even worse, and the ultra-right wingers hate President Obama, the Democrats, the immigration reform they are forcing through, the tightening of gun controls and legalization of same-sex marriages. The ranks of right-wing militia have become bigger since Obama’s election.

Speculation about this, however, is avoided in the U.S. The first circumstantial evidence indicates that the bombs in Boston were planted more by a lonely fanatic rather than by any terrorist group. One can also notice a collective instinct of psychic self-defense – we won’t be intimidated, the life will go on as usual. As Tom Friedman wrote, in The New York Times, “bring on the next marathon.”