The Boston Bombing: An Assessment

BY Herschel Smith
10 years, 11 months ago

Kurt Hofmann and David Codrea both note the huge effect that a relatively small group of individuals can have on societal stability.  And make no mistake about it – law enforcement in and around Boston believed that they were performing “stability operations” (counterinsurgency) after the Boston bombing.  Their operations had all of the hallmarks of stability operations the U.S. performed in Iraq, including signals intelligence, humint and forcible home invasions, in spite of the fact that Americans have the constitution to “protect” us from these tacics.

But most interesting isn’t this evolution in tactics, but that it is defended and even begged for by the collectivists, and not just the rulers.

If the tragedy in Boston proves anything, it’s that it really does take a village.

Investigators now are trying to figure out what happened leading up to the attack – how two brothers could become radicalized, how they managed to build the bombs and set them off without being noticed, and whether they were part of some broader violent mission. But the impressive response of Massachusetts – from the locals who followed directions to stay indoors to the police who hunted down and caught the suspects, one of them alive, to the elected officials who not only maintained public calm but managed to stay remarkably focused and clear-headed themselves – shows that we must act together to maintain our very lives.

[ … ]

And what would an individual do with an AR-15? Go door-to-door, ferreting out a man who might well have another bomb on him? That’s one way to wind up dead, perhaps taking a lot of other people with you. A single individual with a gun is no match for a suicide bomber. Trained teams of bomb squad technicians and well-protected professional law enforcement officers are a better bet. This, actually, is what the framers of the constitution had in mind when they wrote a Second Amendment referring to “a well-regulated militia.”

Note the fear that grips this pitiful woman, and the reflexive (and incorrect) reaction to equate law enforcement with the militia of the second amendment.  I recall having this discussion with my son Daniel concerning his service in the Marine Corps.  Granted that was older than was he at the time I said this, but it holds true regardless.  Son, I said, there are things worse than perishing, such as perishing without honor.

No man lives forever, but we will have a hand in turning over a country to our children in which they are free or enslaved.  This will be the legacy of our horrible generation.  Which will we choose?

As for what we would do with an AR-15?  I am much more concerned about law enforcement than I am a bomber.

UPDATE: Mike Vanderboegh notes another collectivist arguing for collectivist solutions to collectivist problems.

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Comments

  1. On April 24, 2013 at 9:51 am, Chuck said:

    “I am much more concerned about law enforcement than I am a bomber.”

    Expand that to government at all levels and you couldn’t be more on the money. How many people were butchered by their own governments in the 20th Century compared to the number killed by terrorists? The body count racked up by governments dwarfs everything else, including the World Wars. Governments are more dangerous to their own citizens than any other force of evil on the planet. And this is nothing new. The Old Testament is full of examples.

    The American people are clueless to this fact, have always been so (it could never happen here!) and so blinded by idiots like Bill O’Reilly stirring up fear that they are shaking in their shoes about two amateur knuckleheads to the extent they are absolutely clamoring for the local, state and Federal governments to make slaves of them “for their own good.”

    When this fight against tyranny turns kinetic, it will be a long and lonely road, and we few patriots will be cast as the villains. Most “Americans” will welcome martial law and see their government overlords and their jackbooted minions as heroes.

  2. On April 24, 2013 at 11:40 am, Jgm0311 said:

    This might be off subject but wanted to rant anyways. When has it ever been a victory or a good job after hundreds are injured and few killed? I get sick of the everyone telling us what a great job our LEO’s did!! What the hell, we had two idiots detonate a bomb at a major event and then shut down a entire city!! And then to find out (not surprising) one of the men had been investigated by the broken fbi! 90% of our LEO’s don’t have the tactical expertise to conduct such operations. They think because they get an M-4 and some cool ninja gear it makes them believe they are automatically delta force. Look at some of the photos from this last event. It show’s LEO’s standing around pointing their weapons at the backs of their freaking colleagues. I mean no offense to LEO’s, this is coming from an 8 Marine Corps veteran, but police are a scary bunch for the most part. I won’t even get into the shooting statics by our countries police force. I apologize if this offends anyone and if it does look in the mirror. End of rant, thank you.

  3. On April 24, 2013 at 12:20 pm, Phelps said:

    @Jgm0311: Also note that their operation was, at the end of the day, not ONLY a complete and total failure as far as apprehending the subject, but in fact HINDERED his capture, which happened only a few minutes after they finally gave up — by a private citizen. (And when I say private citizen, read “militiaman”.)

  4. On April 24, 2013 at 5:26 pm, scott s. said:

    It does seem like these events are treated largely as psychological inquiries — “what motivated these guys”. I guess so we can apply some sort of psych response to make them “feel better”. I see also now the definition of “WMD” is being enlarged to cover virtually anything other than a handgun. I speculate this is intended to produce a certain response in the public. Finally I see now it is considered acceptable and appropriate to put a region on “lock down”, a concept that originated with controlling prison populations.

    It seems like the Ruskies knew something — why weren’t we out looking for more dots to connect? What is it we pay these guys for? Maybe we should outsource it to Russia.

  5. On April 24, 2013 at 8:32 pm, Louie Whatif said:

    There is so much wrong with this picture! Your analysis of LE performance flukes and follies is right on. Picking two out of a hundred thousand with “stuffed” back pacs only works if you knew who they were and what they were up to ahead of time! Another atf deal gone sideways? Then, if they were miraculously all over these guys like white on rice, where did they get the brothers cell phone info in order to track them? And if they were all over them, as they are proclaiming, then why did they need the semi trained not so swat army? Also, INS, or whatever they call themselves these days, CBP maybe? Would have been the historical trackers of the brothers, not the FBI. And in the final analysis, we have two left wing psycopathic democrats bombing Boston, and no one brings that up? That by itself is a major misdirect! Too many holes to believe the story being presented!

  6. On April 25, 2013 at 4:35 am, DAN III said:

    Two thoughts here:

    1. Oddly I’ve never felt the need for those in “government” to “protect” me and those I love. Protection is something I’ll provide myself or die trying.

    2. US News & World Report….there was a time I considered US News to be the only conservative news magazine out there. Sadly it appears it too has joined the collective ranks of other left-wing leaning, collectivist print media publications.

    We are living in destructive times here….destructive times of the country we once knew disappearing. Sad.

  7. On April 25, 2013 at 8:19 am, Earl said:

    I couldn’t agree more with both the post & comments but what is bugging the hell out of me is -and really shouldn’t- how there appears to be an embargo on the tactics employed & the implications.

    If the state & fed are going to assume complete responsibility for their subjects health, safety & defense, where are the various procedures so some civilian doesn’t get their ass blown-away? e.g., when announced lock down, house searches are to ensue, does everyone strip to scivvies? Lockup all personal firearms, etc, etc….

    Where’s the national discussion?

  8. On April 25, 2013 at 4:25 pm, Blacque Jacques Shellacque said:

    “Note the fear that grips this pitiful woman,…

    “Pitiful” is way too polite a term to describe the likes of her.

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This article is filed under the category(s) Second Amendment and was published April 23rd, 2013 by Herschel Smith.

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