April 15, 2013: Roughly 23,000 people ran that day in the Boston Marathon which is annually held in honor of the Massachusetts state holiday, Patriots Day. Two bombs exploded at the finish line. Three were killed, and 100 were injured by shrapnel. Between 25-30 people immediately suffered amputations, specifically legs and feet.
I give my condolences to the victims in this attack. While scrolling my Facebook newsfeed, a friend posted a picture with the caption:
“While the world is ‘shocked’
by Boston-Bombing:
At the same:
7 Palestinians were killed
55 Deaths in Iraq by bombings
32 Other random killings in Iraq
12 Deaths in Afghanistan…
and we could go on…
But ‘less’ important?"
The idea is that America gets worldly coverage for a terrorist attack resulting in three deaths, and the Middle-East had more deaths but less coverage. This lends the idea that Americans think their people are more important than people from other countries. Still, it seems bitter to downplay the Boston attack because more people died elsewhere. Even though they were only three people, they were still people, which came before nationality, race, religious beliefs, or any other distinguishing trait. The reason why it was covered so quickly and so pervasively was that disturbed a peaceful tradition. No one runs a race thinking they will be blown away with raining shrapnel. It was a “surprise attack” which is the worst form of intelligence failure in preventing crime. Since warfare and bombings occur at a high frequency in Middle-Eastern countries, a bombing would not surprise people as much, however their deaths are just as painful as ours in the same kind of attack. That is what the Facebook poster was trying to help us realize. A shock to America is something more common in other areas of the world where the people are less fortunate.
I looked up the four tragic events, which are inarguably a part of the ongoing tragedies in those Middle-Eastern countries. The 32 random killings was an earlier estimation of the same widespread attack in Iraq killing 55. Even the same pictures are shown between the two reports. The 12 deaths in Afghanistan actually happened in March, and I checked an Afghanistan news website, just to make sure. Twelve people dying is still depressing for the survivors regardless of which month it occurred, though for the purpose of this entry, only the tragedies on April 15, 2013 will be compared.
Here are the attacks in Palestine and Iraq that happened on the same day:
7 Palestinians Killed
Seven Palestinians were killed in Aleppo, Syria. They were in a refugee camp, Handarat. There was a nearby militant camp that was attacked by President Bashar al-Assad’s government forces, and the Syrian rebels killed the Palestinian refugees during the ambush.
55 Deaths in Iraq
In Iraq, 55 people were killed and around 300 were injured. There were 13 or more bombs, mostly car-bombs, exploding in 12 different areas of the country. Those targeted were government powers, foreign diplomats, lawyers, bodyguards, and civilians. Locations included Saddam Hussein’s hometown Tikrit, the oil rich city of Kirkut, and the heavily guarded airport in Bagdad. The capital city of Bagdad was hit the hardest overall. The coordinated attacks were a common tactic of the Al-Qaeda branch in Iraq, however no one claimed responsibility yet.
This deadly bombardment of attacks was to create fearful environment for people trying to vote in the elections taking place next week. Before this series of bombings, 14 candidates have been killed already. Al-Qaeda is linked to a Syrian rebel movement, Nusra Front, and they are helping them bring down Al-Assad by supplying the rebels with weapons while creating chaos in Iraq. Last month 270 people were killed, and the deadliest day in that month was March 19th, the anniversary of the US invasion, when 65 people were killed.
Insight
Instead of running a foot-race, the Iraqi people were in the midst of an electoral race. Al-Qaeda or whoever was responsible was trying to take out voters to influence the election results, or not to have the election at all since they prefer a theocracy. By supporting democracy, the participants are adopting another part of Western culture, and losing more of the culture innate to the Middle-East. Perhaps they figured if a Sunni is elected, the elected official will be more sympathetic to at least some of the reactionary ideals, and eventually revert to a theocratic society.
In the midst of the attacks, a school full of children dropped to the floor screaming from the shattered windows. Even though the Boston Globe says, “Although violence in Iraq has fallen from its peak in 2006 and 2007, bombings and other attacks remain common,” the children’s screams were the same as any children’s screams when in close-range of a bomb. Even if violence is “normal,” children are still frightened, still scream; still cry.
Since Al-Qaeda is cooperating with the Nusra Front from Syria, President Bashar al-Assad possibly attacked the camp to prevent the terrorist mogul from supplying them weaponry. It was opportunistic to attack the same day as the Iraq attacks, because Al-Qaeda or whoever was responsible would be too busy to supplement weapons. So Al-Assad’s attack was pre-emptive.
The Palestinians set up a refugee camp that was too close to a Syrian rebel camp, or did they have no where else to situate themselves? Did they believe they would be more protected by the militants? Should they have communicated with them more and created bonds? Were the militants too pre-occupied with their own crisis which started in 2011 to create a bond with their refugee neighbors? Did they just not want the Palestinians there and used the attack as an excuse to semi-accidentally kill them? Some of these questions will be right and some will be wrong. Perhaps the Palestinians were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were not the targets of either side of the attack. Still, they were still human beings with families and loved ones. They may have been human beings intended on killing other human beings, but there is no way to know for sure. They are just humans that had beating hearts. Blood does not have a race or a religion.
Blood rushed through the Boston Marathon runners’ veins on the same date, whether in ambition to win a defeated race or in fear of the explosions as they happened. The shrapnel hurt just as much as the victims in the Middle-East. If the terrorist who committed these Boston attacks is from an Islamic extremist group, the person probably wanted our people to feel what the Middle-East endured regularly.
Though the perpetrators in Iraq were insurgents and the Syrian government initiated the other attack against the militant rebels. If the Boston bomber is an Islamic extremist, the attack will have been inspired by the drone strikes. If America simply attacks back, they further hurt their reputation by being duped again into Carlos Marighella’s trick of “Enraging the Beast.” The more America attacks the Middle-East through more drone strikes, the more people want to fight back by joining terrorist organizations.
©2013 Caroline Friehs
Originally posted: April 18, 2013
References
Associated Press (2013 Apr. 15). Syrian militants kill 7 Palestinians in Aleppo. PressTV. Retrieved from: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/04/15/298456/syrian-militants-kill-7-palestinians/
BBC News (2013 April 15). Boston Marathon hit by deadly twin explosions. BBC News – US and Canada. Retrieved by: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-22160691
The Gulf Today (2013 Apr. 15). 55 dead in Iraq. GulfToday.ae. Retrieved from: http://gulftoday.ae/portal/5fe745dd-8067-40cc-b66e-dcdad54f1d6d.aspx
RT Question More (2013 Apr. 15). Black Monday in Iraq: 55 killed; almost 300 injured in series of attacks. RT Question More. Retrieved from: http://rt.com/news/iraq-election-attack-killed-876/
Salaheddin, S (2013 Apr. 16). Highly coordinated attacks in Iraq kill 32, injure 200. Arab News.com. Retrieved from: http://www.arabnews.com/news/448301
Schreck, A (2013 Apr. 16). Attacks across Iraq as elections near; at least 55 dead. The Boston Globe. Retrieved from: http://bostonglobe.com/news/world/2013/04/15/iraq-attacks-kill-elections-near-qaeda-group-suspected-less-than-week-before-vote/OZZfpnj86TEycv8YY9zU1O/story.html
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