As a resident of the Boston area in the aftermath of the marathon bombings, I have to say the conspiracy theories have already gotten really annoying. In this case, the simple hypothesis is actually very well supported, and conspiracy theorists tend to support their hypotheses with observations that are just as likely or almost as likely if they were completely incorrect.
But I do want to say a little bit about this concept of a false flag operation in the context of terrorists like the Tsarnaevs. One of the things that’s odd about such a terrorist attack is it’s extremely unclear what sort of goals it might hope to achieve. At least, it seems unlikely to frighten the US towards an isolationist policy, or achieve any end that directly supports the goals of (the violent extremist flavor du jour) militant Islamists.
The proliferation of this sort of tactic might be best understood under the concept of a false flag. In a false flag operation, an attack is disguised so as to provoke a misdirected response. In the archetypal case, this involves a government falsifying an enemy attack (or secretly facilitating a real enemy attack) to bolster public support for military action against that enemy. But there’s an alternative scenario, in which an enemy seeks to have one of their potential allies blamed for the attack. Even if the ally is not fooled by this ploy, the provoked counter-attack could provide the need to unite against a common enemy.
The best counter-attack against terrorism, therefore, is as restrained as it is effective. I don’t mind that the police and military told people to stay home on April 19. I don’t mind that they searched Watertown house by house. Yes, it’s costly and disruptive, but having a bomber on the loose is also costly and disruptive. Yes, the guy wasn’t found in the initial search, but there’s only so much you can do with limited information.
Ultimately, though, the town is getting back to normal. We feel no need to buy the extremist’s implicit declaration that there’s a war on. We can treat them as ordinary criminals. Boston has dealt with those before.
ComplexMeme 