Explosion at Boston Marathon

[trileacman]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/04/201341562946963175.html

33 dead and 160 others are injured in Iraqi bombings today. You can imagine the carnage and bloodshed at those incidents as well.

It's been given much less media attention in the wake of the Boston bombings, it would lend credence to the opinion that despite all good intentions a hierarchy of victims exists in our minds.

[laoislad]

CNN reporting that one of the dead is an 8 year old child.

[Wildweasel74]

I think with Iraq its out of sight out of mind in relation to alot what happens over there. Things are bad when bombs are been set off during marathons, how long before a sports game is hit, if anything its more likley to happen in the uk than America.

[Syferus]

Oh, of course there is a hierarchy of victimhood. A bunch of westerners who look and act like us are always going to pull at our heart strings more than people we generally don't have a good understanding of. I doubt the people in Qatar are more affected by Americans being blown up than people in one of their neighbouring countries.

I think sometimes we go a little too far with our guilt about how we react emotionally to events like this compared to ones in other countries.

[stew]

Oh, of course there is a hierarchy of victim hood. A bunch of westerners who look like is is always going to pull at our heart strings more than people we generally don't have a good understanding of. I doubt the people in Qatar are more affected by Americans being blown up than people in one of their neighbouring countries. I think sometimes we go a little too far with our guilt about how we react emotionally to events like this compared to ones in other countries.

An eight year old boy confirmed dead in this debacle, also ball bearings were used hence the multiple loss of limbs.

They have a guy with severe burns they are not sure of, either a victim or one of the terrorists, I wonder if profiling came into the equation.

[trileacman]

To be honest I think this is an American based attack such as the Oklahoma bombings. Would jihadists have not claimed the attack by now if they had committed it?

[J70]

Police confirm 1st bomb was homemade. Some right wing nut job. Patriots day in the states

You might want to wait until the facts come out, you have no idea who it is!

Pretty safe to say it's a nut job though. Sickening stuff. There will be loads of stuff flying about the alleged perpetrators. Just saw Oklahoma bombing was April 19th...which probably means nothing really though.

I would say there is more than one nut job involved, interesting to note you blamed the right wingers on this before you knew what you were talking about............... no bias there at all at all.

Check the news: Fox hyping likely Al Qaeda (or sympathizer) involvement; MSNBC potential domestic, tax day/Boston connection.

Fox are right wingers, the rest of the media are left wingers plus they all deal in sensationalism to some degree, my point was simply that a lad on here played the right wing card right away which was expected but in my opinion, premature!

Sorry Stew, wasn't trying to criticize you! More agreeing with you about the premature speculation! Although, I will be shocked if Fox aren't closer to the truth given the manner of the bombings.

[stew]

To be honest I think this is an American based attack such as the Oklahoma bombings. Would jihadists have not claimed the attack by now if they had committed it?

I think you could not be more wrong but we will see.

[orangeman]

Madness. Sheer madness.

[Arthur_Friend]

Police confirm 1st bomb was homemade. Some right wing nut job. Patriots day in the states

You might want to wait until the facts come out, you have no idea who it is!

Eammonca already has it down to jihadists, you missed that one. You're right about speculation though.

[Declan]

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/04/15/perfect-day-turns-evil/W7KQHq1NWFqukte3VQ14DJ/story.html?s_campaign=sm_tw

[Harold Disgracey]

Was talking to a mate in Boston last night, he said that local media reports were saying that the explosions were caused by pipe bombs. So the right wing nutjob theory could well be right.

[seafoid]

Multiple bombs, all going off at the same time to overwhelm the emergency services, some of them going off in a high profile location where TV cameras are likely to catch it.  Absolutely no doubt who could be behind this. Mad, evil, jihadist psychopaths.

You'd have to study the bomb material to back that up, Eamonn. It's not as if everything is hunky dory in the US today. There could be some NRA extremists somewhere deep in Republican territory who want to send a message to liberal Boston about changing the gun laws. We just don't know.

Jihadis tend to be more professional. They know how to build bombs because they got a lot of practice in theatre.   

[Never beat the deeler]

Shocking stuff. Saw headlines on the news this morning and haven't had a chance to read any news until now (Boston is 12 hrs behind here). My heart goes out to all those affected - and that will be in the thousands directly or indirectly.

I think its sickening, though, the amount of graphic footage and photos available online in the immediate aftermath of an event like this. It is highly possible that people trying to find out about loved ones in Boston will come across a picture on Twitter or some news feed of that very person with their leg hanging off.

And news outlets, in their haste to get the most disturbing and shocking story, talking about 'makeshift morgues' ffs.

[brokencrossbar1]

This is dreadful.  I have to agree with the posters who think this is the work of Right wing extremists from America.  There would have been more damage done if it had been jihadists and they would have claimed it by now.