Cut off at the knees

 

I have not wanted to write about Monday's terrorist attack on America at the Boston marathon, as my thoughts are at least as dark as the headlines.

 

25 To 30 People Have At Least One Leg Missing…

 

 

Brothers watching Boston Marathon each lose a leg

Man in Boston bombing photo lost both legs, dad says

Boston Explosion Survivors Suffering Trauma, Losing Limbs

Peter Fagenholz, a surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, which treated around 29 victims, said many faced critical surgeries in coming days and some had already undergone amputations.

Many of the injuries were to "lower extremities" and included tissue and bone damage, he said. One victim had suffered a shattered eardrum.

Joe Leone said he was a mile from the finish when the race was ended due to the explosions, and described the shock of suddenly seeing so many ambulances tending to the wounded along the street.

"It just pisses you off if this is terrorism," the 56-year-old Houston resident, the vice president of an energy company, said after the race, holding back tears. "What is wrong with these people? How can you do this to innocent people?"

The physical damage was wreaking an emotional toll on friends and families of survivors, who were learning that some of their loved ones had suffered severe injuries.

Tim Corcoran of Warwick, R.I., said his sister-in-law, Celeste, had lost both of her legs in the attack and that her 18-year-old daughter had had her legs "ripped open" by shrapnel. Mr. Corcoran's brother, who was standing with them, was "devastated," he said.

"He's an emotional mess. His wife just lost both of her legs," Tim Corcoran said, adding, "Terrorism just ripped our family apart."

 

Aside from the usual - and thankfully, ubiquitous - prayers and condolences, I have two thoughts I feel obligated to record. One is that the prevalence of such injuries calls to mind the fact that America itself is "cut off at the knees." Even before this happened we were an intensely and deeply divided people, on the brink of economic collapse and no longer the military superpower of days past. It is thus inevitable that we no longer command the respect nor enjoy the influence we once did on the world stage.

I try to take to heart the words of J.E. Dyer - "We don't know who you are yet. But we'll find you." And Allen West: 

"We now have a new date to remember as a Boston Massacre. But for the perpetrators of this attack, just remember that we are Americans. We will mourn this loss. We will pray and bury our dead and comfort our wounded. However, be advised that after we mourn, we are coming for all of you. And political correctness will not save you."

 

I simply don't believe this - "we are coming for you" - anymore. I can't. I simply don't trust the motivations, intentions, words or actions of our leadership.

  

Two days after the fact, officialdom has no answers and I'm not sure I will be able to believe any answers they do come up with, if they do.

I told you my thoughts were dark.

In almost all the eyewitness reports I have heard, people say they didn't think much of the first "boom," that it was only at the second one that they began to think something was "wrong."  I can't imagine such complacency. I've been expecting an attack like this for years, especially since the Obama administration has done so much to weaken our position and our resolve (as per my first thought).

How could anyone have believed that the bloodthirsty quest of Islamic terrorism was going to stop with the Jews? I don't know how many times I have thought, said and written that if the nations of the world had reacted appropriately to the suicide bombings in Israel years ago, when they were incinerating Jews by the busload, if the world had reacted with "proportionate" revulsion and determination, we might have had a chance to stop this savagery at the get-go.

 

"And I will bless those who bless you,

and the one who curses you I will curse...

 (Bereishis/Genesis 12:3)

 

Finally, post-9/11,  -London, -Madrid and -Benghazi - and even two days post-Boston - the darkest of all headlines is this utter stupidity on the part of those who "protect" us:

Trash cans around Capitol removed after Boston terrorist attack

Comments

[Mannie Sherberg]

Obama's pledge that the perpetrators of the Second Boston Massacre "will feel the full weight of justice" is worse than a joke -- it's an insult to every thinking American. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- the prime plotter of the 9/11 attacks and of the kidnapping and butchering of Danny Pearl -- is, at this moment, very much alive and comfortably ensconced in Guantanamo. He has never been put on trial -- and has never felt anything remotely resembling the "full weight of justice." As long as Obama remains president, it is unlikely he ever will. Such a travesty could happen only in a country that has completely lost its way -- and can now best be described as decadent. Meanwhile, Colonel Allen West -- who speaks the dying language that used to be called "Americanism" -- is reduced to spitting in the wind. We live in a dark time -- and it is rapidly getting darker.