Quote:
Originally Posted by Super Head 713
Yaaaaaayyy I cant wait to hear y he did it and why he chose the marathon
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That is pretty straightforward like I suggested in my earlier post (I am presuming this is somehow Al Qaeda related which is not yet confirmed).
An assymetric terrorist group like Al Qaeda cannot really hope to defeat its enemy in a battlefield. Their main goal is to continue to exist and continue to inspire new recruits to join. To get people to join they need to somehow show that they are still relevant.
It is hard for them to show that they are relevant in an actual battlefield because they will get their asses kicked in a nanosecond. The most effective way for them to show relevance is to pick a soft target that is easy to attack yet has huge and disproportionate visibility. The Boston Marathon is a great example. It is when the eyes of the world are on one location yet it has security that is pretty easy to penetrate. It is clear that they will not inflict any significant physical damage to the US by a strike like that yet it will inspire fear and insecurity as well as give terrorists elsewhere a chance to gloat and bask in publicity.
It allows them to have a marketing message to new recruits that says they they are relevant. More effective for them than saying "join Al Qaeda and get your ass blown off by an invisible drone strike in northern pakistan".
In terms of return on investment it is more effective for them to attack something like the Marathon than the White House or some similar well protected target. In the White house they probably would have only a 10% chance of success and pretty good chances of being caught or killed at the scene. At the marathon they were almost guaranteed to succeed and it is only their stupidity that allowed them to get caught. All they needed to do right after the attack was get in a car and drive to Canada. They probably could have reached Montreal in 4 to 5 hours and caught a flight out of the country.
Glad at least one guy was caught. My guess is that it was much more than a 2 person job and we need to get as many accomplices as possible to thwart future attacks.