“Let’s hope the Boston Marathon bomber is a white American” – David Sirota, Salon magazine, 16 Apr 2013

As of now, it appears the perpetrators of the Boston Marathon bombing have been found; two brothers, Dzhokhar and Tamertan Tsarnaev, ages 19 and 26 respectively (a better article on Tamertan is here). One is dead, one is now in custody. From the pictures I have seen, both appear to be “white.” According to the press releases, the brothers are ethnic Chechans who immigrated here from the semi-autonomous Russian province of Dagestan, or at least that area of Russia, around a decade ago. That means that while they may be “white,” they are not American. Mr. Sirota will have to keep hoping for a White American Christian male to perpetrate some sort of atrocity against the American people; this pair won’t fit his bill.

Why is Mr. Sirota, who himself appears to be white, so desirous that the Boston Marathon terrorists be white Americans? Mr. Sirota appears to be distraught that whenever there is a terrorist attack, that the first thing on people’s minds is that it must be an Islamic male from the Middle East. Mr. Sirota thinks that we should be more ecumenical in our desire to find the perpetrator. It is his belief that the only reason why we don’t immediately go out looking for white males in conjunction with such events is because of what he calls “white male privilege.”

His example of this is mass shootings. He claims that when a mass shooting occurs, “white men are not collectively denigrated/targeted for those shootings – even though most come at the hands of white dudes.” “Likewise,” he says, “in the context of terrorist attacks, such privilege means white non-Islamic terrorists are typically portrayed not as representative of whole groups or ideologies, but as “lone wolf” threats to be dealt with as isolated law enforcement matters, while non-white or developing-world terrorism suspects are often reflexively portrayed as representative of larger conspiracies, ideologies and religions that must be dealt with as systemic threats.”

This seems to have outraged Mr. Sirota sense of justice. Apparently what he would like to see is for the police to start profiling white males the same way that Islamic terrorists are profiled. That is, if the bomber or bombers turn out to be white males, then all white males in the United States should be identified as potential terrorists, presumably including himself. That after all would only be “fair,” and would perhaps mean that the United States could start targeting white males with drone strikes. He quotes author Tim Wise, who puts it this way:

“White privilege is knowing that even if the bomber turns out to be white, no one will call for your group to be profiled as terrorists as a result, subjected to special screening or threatened with deportation. White privilege is knowing that if this bomber turns out to be white, the United States government will not bomb whatever corn field or mountain town or stale suburb from which said bomber came, just to ensure that others like him or her don’t get any ideas. And if he turns out to be a member of the Irish Republican Army we won’t bomb Dublin. And if he’s an Italian-American Catholic we won’t bomb the Vatican.”

Apparently, both Mr. Sirota and Mr. Wise are bent out of shape because the people that we have been fighting since the terror attack of 911 (which incidentally, was not perpetrated by white male Christian Americans – unless you happen to be a 911 “truther”) are of a different nationality, culture, and skin color than they. Apparently they feel guilty about this and wish that there was a more “level” playing field when it comes to terrorists. Mr. Wise in his article prints a whole laundry list of white male (and female) American terrorists, most of whom I have never heard of, and interestingly enough does not include such icons of the left as Bill Ayres or Bernardine Dohrn, both co-founders of the Weather Underground, and responsible for multiple bombings here in the United States. Today of course, they are respected left-wing professors at prestigious American universities – which is probably one of the reasons Mr. Wise neglected to mention them.

Have there been white American terrorists in the past? Absolutely! Are there white American terrorists in America today? Maybe; however, unless they actually perpetrate an act of terror, they are really more theoretical than actual. And there hasn’t been a spate of white American terrorists blowing things up lately. In fact, the last ones I can think of were Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, although from the list that Mr. Wise has compiled, he would probably disagree. Mr. Wise’s problem with all this is that despite the number of white people “who engage in (or have plotted) politically motivated violence meant to terrorize and kill,” no one is calling for whites, or white Christians in particular, to be profiled as terrorists, subjected to special screening, or to be threatened with deportation.

Both Mr. White and Mr. Sirota both seem to feel that it would be much “healthier” for our nation if this were not the case; and perhaps, just maybe, if the Boston Bombers could turn out to be white male American Christians, then maybe, just maybe we could have a little “justice” here and get right-wing white male American Christians to be declared members of a terrorist group and subject to a bit more scrutiny from the TSA, FBI, BATFE, and other alphabet soup federal organizations. Maybe we could even start deporting them. Certainly, at the very least, we could take away their guns.

Unfortunately for both of them, it appears that while the bombers are in fact white, (and indeed, come from the Caucasus Mountains region of Russia, the area where the people whom the term Caucasian is derived come from) they are not American; well, at least by birth, although it is now being reported that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev became an American citizen on 11 Sep 2012. Reports vary; some say they are from Chechnya, some say from the semi-autonomous Russian province of Dagestan; certainly their father lives in Dagestan. The two areas, both part of Russia, are right next to each other geographically. Chechnya, which is still part of Russia, is a hotbed of violent practitioners of the “Religion of Peace.” In fact, Chechen Islamic practitioners have perpetrated a whole string of violent acts, including bombings, in an attempt to break free of Russia and set up their own Islamic republic. The most widely reported incident here in the U.S. was the Beslan school massacre in Sep 2004 which ended with the death of 334 hostages, many of whom were school kids. At least 437 people, including 221 children were hospitalized. Dagestan too, has been a scene of low-level Islamic insurgency, occasional outbreaks of separatism, ethnic tensions, and terrorism since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Dzhokhar, like many 19 year olds these days, apparently has a page on a social networking site, in this case a Russian site called Vkontakte. On it he describes his world view as “Islam;” so much for the Christian angle too. The older brother, who has described himself as a “very religious” Muslim boxer, was killed by police as the two began a violent crime spree last night. Explosives were involved. An MIT cop was killed. Another cop was seriously wounded. The younger brother is currently on the run, reportedly wearing an explosive vest, and vowing to take as many with him as he can in revenge for the death of his brother. (Apparently, he is on-line with a mobile device of some kind.)

It is once again going to be a sad day for the left. Once again the perpetrator of acts of terrorism against Americans has not been a right wing hate group, despite their best efforts to steer public opinion in that direction every time.

I remember when everyone was trying to find the Beltway sniper back in 2002. Everyone was looking for a white male (Christian), with military experience, driving a white delivery van. It turned out to be two black males, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, driving a blue Chevy Caprice. Religion? Islam (Nation of Islam) – at least for Muhammad. Malvo’s religious preference is never mentioned. He was a minor at the time and apparently very much under the thumb of Muhammad, who reportedly sexually abused him as well. They did get one thing right in this case though; Muhammad did have military service in the Louisiana National Guard, and later on active duty in the U.S. Army, where he earned the Expert Rifleman’s Badge and saw service in the Persian Gulf.

Funny thing though. Despite the fact that the perps that time around were black, I was never once tempted to look at all black people as potential sniper terrorists, nor did it once cross my mind that they should all be deported. I was concerned about the Islamic angle, but since nearly 3000 of my fellow citizens were killed not too long before by Islamic terrorists, and since most of the terroristic attacks around the world were being committed by Islamic terrorists, and since Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida (both Islamic) had declared war on the United states, and we were currently engaged on the ground in Afghanistan, I think that my concerns were well grounded.

Oddly enough, when practitioners of the religion of peace have just said that they want to kill all Americans, looking around for Christians to profile just simply makes no sense. It’s sort of like the drunk guy under the streetlight looking for his car keys. When asked if he lost them there, he replied, “no, but I can see better over here because there is more light.”

This time is no different. As an example of the sort of knee-jerk reaction typical of the left, actor and comedian Jay Mohr blamed the bombing on the “gun culture” and the second amendment, tweeting the night after the attack, “What bothers me most about today is that we’re getting used 2 it. ENOUGH. 2nd amendment must go. Violence has 2 stop. Culture MUST change”. This was followed by “The 2nd Amendment lends itself to the CULTURE of violence we are living in. Stop blowing up my timeline w your gun/porn fetishes.”

Unfortunately for Mr. Mohr, neither the “gun culture” nor the second amendment had anything to do with this incident either. Perhaps what he needs to do is to get excited about changing the “bomb culture” in Chechnya (and other areas of Islamic influence) instead. He may not have noticed, but the Boston event was a bomb, not a crazed individual with an AR-15. Most gun owners are not into bomb making. The second amendment doesn’t protect the right to keep and bear bombs. No one I know of hunts with bombs, or goes to the range to practice blowing up bombs.

And if Mr. Mohr is really concerned about the “culture of violence,” perhaps he should talk to some of his fellow actors and directors in Hollywood who seem to take to making violent movies like children take to candy. It is no wonder that most people in this country equate AR-15s and the term “semi-automatic” with machine guns. I don’t think I have ever seen a semi-auto rifle in a Hollywood movie or TV show ever. Any time I see an “AR-15” it is firing full auto. “Rock and Roll” is all Hollywood seems to know. He mentions “a cultural numbness to violence” and being sick of watching bloodshed on TV; perhaps he should watch what people are watching for “entertainment” these days – you don’t have to watch the nightly news to get your fill of violence on TV.

And then there was the CNN report that stated that “Pressure Cooker Bombs” are the “Signature of Right Wing Individuals.” This despite the fact that the instructions for making these bombs have appeared on al-Qaeda webpages and have been recommended by al-Qaeda to its supporters around the world, and the fact that there have been no known attacks by “right-wing” terror groups using this methodology anywhere in the country. In fact, despite CNN reporting that a senior U.S. counterterrorism investigator (anonymously of course) supposedly told CNN that “pressure cooker bombs have also been a signature of extreme right-wing individuals in the United States who he said tend to revel in building homemade bombs,” pretty much the only references I could find in the Google search I performed to “pressure cooker bombs” and “right-wing” groups were articles reporting what CNN had reported.

I did find a Washington Post report that stated that Homeland Security has “been on the alert for the devices since at least 2004,” however there was nothing in the article about right-wing terrorist groups in the United States. Instead, it referenced a DHS memo describing pressure cooker bombs as a “technique commonly taught in Afghan terrorist training camps,” and mentioned that pressure cooker bombs were used in India in 2006 during the Mumbai train attacks.

The CNN article discusses the Olympic Park bombing in 1996 but, correctly, identifies the devices as pipe bombs, not pressure cooker bombs. No matter; apparently, CNN thinks they are one and the same. Terror attacks are not new here in the U.S.; they have been around since at least the 1800s, and probably before. Pipe bombs have been used by a variety of individuals and groups of all stripes; it is not a “signature” of those on the right, much as CNN might like it to be.

But CNN can’t miss the opportunity of planting the seed in the minds of Americans that perhaps, just perhaps, this was (finally) a home-grown right-wing terror attack and not another in a series of events perpetrated by practitioners of the religion of peace. Gotta watch out for those right-wingers; they are all nut jobs, clinging to their guns and religion. Who knows what they will do. And after all; it happened on “tax day” didn’t it? And its Boston – it has to be a Tea Party thing, doesn’t it?

Meanwhile, it looks like we have caught the two who perpetrated this latest act of terror. Were there others involved? Did they have links to al-Qaida or other terrorist groups, or were they working on their own? Perhaps we will know the answers to these and other questions as investigations continue. I do believe it unlikely that we will be attacking Russia with drones in response to this however, and I don’t think it has anything to do with the perps being “white,” although Mr. Sirota and Mr. Wise may disagree. I could shoot a big hole in their argument by pointing out that we haven’t launched any attacks against Saudi Arabia, drone or otherwise, despite the fact that most of the men involved in the 9-11 attacks in 2001 were Saudi nationals.

With the left, there is always a political agenda. Sirota and Wise may be happy that at least white folks are now on the radar scope when it comes to terrorist attacks. They may wish, along with the rest of the left, that this was the long-awaited terror attack from “right-wing fanatic groups” like the “tea party”, but unfortunately for them it is just another case of Islamic terrorism, although I am sure it will ultimately be spun some other way. Already stories are coming out about “what nice boys they were,” and how it is hard to believe that such good kids could have done such a thing. Somehow, this will all turn out to be our fault; in the end it will be shown to be right-wing Islamophobia that turned two nice boys into wild-eyed terrorists.

And unfortunately for us, it just got a lot more difficult to profile terrorists in the United States. While this may make things “fairer” from Sirota and Wise’s perspective, it makes things much more dangerous for everyone else in the United States; not just white Christians, but also blacks, Latinos, and Asians, Hindus, Buddists, and Muslims too.

For terrorists are indiscriminate when it comes to killing; they don’t ask your religion. And they don’t just target whites either.