9/11 nightmare revived in Boston

The Boston Marathon, one of the four major marathon races around the world, ended in bloodshed. After two powerful explosions near the finish line, at least three people died and about 140 were injured. As the number of the seriously wounded will surely increase, more people may lose their lives. The FBI is chasing suspects under the assumption that the explosion is most likely connected to a terrorist plot. After the terrible scene on the spot was exposed to the public through media coverage, the United States was again struck with horror reminiscent of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks which took the lives of 2,977 innocent citizens.

In the 117th marathon race in Boston, as many as 27,000 runners from 96 countries around the globe participated. The perpetrator detonated explosive devices about three hours after the winner had passed the finish line - strongly hinting at a possibility of meticulously blowing them up when a number of amateur marathoners approached the finish line with lots of applause from their families and friends. If that’s the case, it constitutes a malicious attack against a multitude of unspecified persons under a festive mood and one of the most diabolical, inexcusable and unpardonable crimes against humanity.

Not only Americans, but also all the people in the global village are still traumatized by the horrendous 9/11 terror attacks committed by the Islamic fundamentalist group Al Qaeda in 2001. The United States has persistently been engaging in a massive mop-up operation against terrorist organizations in the world after declaring a war on terrorism. America achieved some tangible results as seen by the U.S special forces’ shooting Osama bin Laden to death at a hideout in Pakistan. Yet the Boston terror attack shows the U.S. government’s crusade against terror is a mission unaccomplished.

It is too early to tell who’s behind the attack in Boston. It could have been committed by a professional terrorist group affiliated with a religion or by a loner with no connection to a specific group, as we clearly witnessed in the bombing against government buildings and a shooting spree on innocent citizens by a psychopath in Norway in July 2011. No matter how hard we work on the anti-terrorism front, we can hardly prevent it. The only solution is to chase terrorists to the end and let justice prevail by relentlessly punishing them. There’s no safe zone for terrorists, and we are not an exception.