Observations on terrorists

The quick apprehension of the Boston bombers brings to mind the following observations about terrorists, and especially terrorists in America:

1) In general, terrorists tend to be pretty dumb. Set aside the fact that their act of terrorism didn't do anything to advance their cause, whatever it was. That they were still in Boston four days after the attack, and that they were apparently unaware of how many people had their photos, displays a pretty amateurish understanding of the world. One can make similar observations about some of the other terrorists we have had, both Islamic and non-Islamic. In general they seem to be stupid thugs, rather than the masterminds of fiction.

But then, I notice in general that terror organizations operate by keeping the masterminds safe and sending only the expendable young, dumb, deluded ones out to do the dirty work.

2) For all the carping about the amount of money spent on anti-terrorism since 9/11, it was evident that we were far better prepared to deal with a terrorist incident like this than we were, for example, when Timothy McVeigh blew up the Federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, or when 9/11 occurred. The fact that we have had so few of these incidents in America is another indication that we have gotten a lot better at stopping these sorts of things.

3) Nevertheless, America has an abundance of "soft" targets, large gatherings of people in conditions where it is difficult, if not impossible, to maintain tight security. These will continue to tempt fringe terrorist groups and deluded loners. It would help if the media could bring itself to ignore these sorts of things, as the British media did with IRA bombings, because it is precisely the widespread media coverage of their acts that the terrorists seek. But I suppose that is too much to ask.

4) Terrorists groups like Al Qaeda claim that their intention with terrorist acts is to demoralize America and force it to spend so much money combating it that the country will go broke. Well, after a decade of trying, there is no evidence that either is occurring.

We have spent billions in our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and hundreds of millions in beefing up security in this country, but our economy is so large, the nation as a whole so wealthy, and our economy - even in recession - so healthy and vibrant that it made little difference to us economically. Soaring health care costs are a far worse drain on the economy than anything the terrorists have done.

Nor is there any sign of demoralization in the country. In fact as near as I can tell each terrorist act just makes us madder, and more determined. Clearly the terrorists don't understand the America psyche very well.