It's terrorism, pure and simple

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following editorial was published on Sept. 20 in the Boston Herald.

The weapons of choice in this weekend's New York City bombing tell us a lot about the motivation of the bomber -- and no one in Boston needs to hear the president of the United States or FBI officials dance around that question.

The bomb that went off in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, injuring 29, was filled with shrapnel, small bearings or metal BBs. It was designed to do grave damage -- much like the ones that took three lives and changed the lives of some 260 people here on Marathon Day in 2013. A second pressure-cooker bomb was found before it could be detonated. Five more unexploded devices were found in an Elizabeth, New Jersey, train station.

This was terrorism pure and simple -- even if it did take New York's perfectly pathetic mayor another 24 hours to get those words out.

Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28, shot and captured by New Jersey police yesterday, was identified by investigators as the "main guy" behind the explosion in New York City and an earlier pipe bomb explosion in New Jersey that targeted a charity road race, benefiting Marines and their families. Rahami was a naturalized citizen, born in Afghanistan, and harboring what might have been a rather large chip on his shoulder. His parents had filed suit several years ago alleging their fast-food chicken restaurant was targeted by police, not because neighbors had complained it was a late-night nuisance but -- because they are Muslim.

It doesn't take much these days for those who harbor their own set of grievances to turn them into action. Meanwhile radical jihadis provide a wealth of information via the internet on how to make bombs, and at the same time they stoke hatreds which have already taken root.

Public officials, even President Obama, were a little faster to label a stabbing rampage at a Minnesota mall a "potential act of terrorism." Maybe it was because the now dead suspect was yelling the name of Allah as he did the deed and asking potential victims if they were Muslim.

Other than that, yesterday the president had one of his better No Drama Obama performances, admonishing the press to "refrain from getting out ahead of the investigation" even as Rahami was under arrest in New Jersey.

New York and New Jersey were saved from a far worse fate by alert citizens and great police work -- and yes, perhaps by the grace of a higher power. But all that happened not because of but in spite of political leaders who don't lead and can't inspire.

Editorial on 09/24/2016

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