BOSTON MARATHON BOMBING

I. INTRODUCTION

On 15 April 2013 the whole world was shocked by the news of an explosion that
occur in Boston. Two bombs occured near the finish line on the spectator side of the Boston
Marathon. The explosion killed 3 people, who were spectator and injured many other who
attended.
The 3 victims who were killed and they are Krystle Campbell, the second victim was
an 8 years old child name Martin Richard, and the last victim is a woman name Lu Lingzi
who was a Chinese citizen. Around 134 were wounded and 15 of them were seriously
injured.
Citing from dailymail reports on Tuesday, April 16, 2013 which clearly stated that
there were actually seven bombs planted on the occasion . However, only two of them
exploded near the finish line with a gap of about 12 seconds.
The location of the explosion is only 50 - 100 meters from the finish line. Officers
came straight towards the location of the explosion and search for any suspicious objects . At
the scene , there were a lot of bags and the equipment of the athlete marathon runner who
were abandoned simply because they were rushing to save themselves .
The scene was indeed very chaotic. This bombing was sudden, there were no threat
before the incident and people were very much unaware that this incident was likely to
happen. Therefore, according to the principle of war, this fall under the category of
“surprise”. “Surprise” principle of war means, as the name suggest, a sudden attack. This
means that this incident was done at a time or place or in a manner at which the other
party/target is unprepared. It also deploy more rapidly than the opponent’s ability to adjust.
“ Boston Marathon is an annual marathon hosted by several cities in Greater
Boston in eastern Massachusetts. It is always held on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of
April. Begun in 1897, inspired by the success of the first modern-day marathon competition
in the 1896 Summer Olympics, the Boston Marathon is the world's oldest annual marathon
and ranks as one of the world's best-known road racing events. It is one of six World
Marathon Majors.” (retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Marathon access on
05/05/2014)
What we can see in this attack is that, the bomb was dropped two times. One was drop
and a few seconds later another bomb was dropped after many police and ambulance came to
rescue. This is considered as a strategic to drop the bomb two times. What was the motive
behind the bombing, who did this and further discussion on the “Surprise” principle of war
would be discuss in this paper.

II. THE MOTIVE BEHIND THE BOMBING

The Suspect of the bombing was investigated to be two brothers originating from Russia but
had immigrated to the United States as a refugee since 2002. They are 26-year-old Tamerlan
Tsarnaev , born on October 21, 1986, and killed on April 19, 2013, and 19-year-old Dzhokhar
Tsarnaev, born on July 22, 1993. Tamerlan was killed because of his engagement in a
shootout with the police in the Boston suburb of Watertown. He also killed an MIT police
officer and hijacked his car (an SUV) right after the police publicly announced that he and his
brother was the suspect of the Boston Marathon Bombing. His brother, Dzhokhar Tsarneav,
was injured and escaped. However, he was later found on 19 April 2013 after thousands of
police came searching for him.
The motive behind the bombing as interogated by the police, was that they were influenced
after watching Anwar al-Awlaki lectures. Anwar al-Awlaki is known as the “Osama bin
Laden of the internet” because he motivates and drive other people to be what is known as
“islamic radicals”. He is also suspected to play a part in the bombing that happen in World
Trade Centre in New York, US on 11 September 2001. The police later found out that both
the suspect has nothing to do with the Al-Qaeda organization, however, they are considered
to be an islamic extremist.
“ Dzhokhar said he and his brother wanted to defend Islam from the U.S., which conducted
the Iraq War and War in Afghanistan, in the view of the brothers, against Muslims. Later a
CBS report revealed that a note scrawled by Dzhokhar with a marker on the interior wall of
the boat where he was hiding said the bombings were "retribution for U.S. military action in
Afghanistan and Iraq", and called the Boston victims 'collateral damage', "in the same
way innocent victims have been collateral damage in U.S. wars around the world." According
to The New York Times the portion of the boat's interior with the note would likely be cut
from the hull with permission from the owner and presented in court as evidence.” (retrieved
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Marathon_bombings access on 05/05/2014)
This means that the motive of the two brothers was apart because they wanted to take revenge
on the Americans for what is happening to their muslim brother and sister around the world
that has been invaded by the US military forces.
However, beside this factor, there are also other factor that contributed to their motives
behind the attack. Some analysist believe that Tamerlan inability to blend with the American
Society may have played a part in this bombing. The result of the interogations shows that,
Dzhokhar, Tamerlan’s younger brother seems to just follow his brother footsteps and was not
the mastermind of this bombing.

III. THE TYPE OF BOMB USE IN THIS EXPLOSION

The type of bomb use in this explosion is the pressure cooker bomb.
“A pressure cooker bomb is an improvised explosive device (IED) created by
inserting explosive material into a pressure cooker and attaching a blasting cap into the cover
of the cooker. Pressure cooker bombs have been used in a number of attacks in the 21st
century. Among them have been the 2006 Mumbai train bombings, 2010 Stockholm
bombings (failed to explode), the 2010 Times Square car bombing attempt (failed to
explode), and the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings.” ( "A Short Recent History of Pressure
Cooker Bombs". swampland. Retrieved April 16, 2013)
This type of bomb is quite simple to make as the instruction of making this bomb is
widespread on the internet. There are many articles with illustration and also videos on the
internet showing the process on how to make this pressure cooker bomb. As mention that this
pressure cooker bomb is quite common among bombings that happen in public places
because the effect is very disastrous but not as big as the atomic bomb or other weapon of
mass destruction. What came to mind when I read about this is that the suspect are still
amateur bomber/common people, they are not part of a “dangerous” organization like Al-
Qaeda. However, they have very high determination of implementing their plan, that is why
this bombing happen. The bomb exploded in the spectator side, near the finish line and so the
ones who become victims in this are the civillians who were watching the marathon.
“The 6-liter pressure-cooker bombs were concealed in black nylon bags left on
sidewalks teeming with people near the race’s finish line. The devices exploded 12 seconds
apart and were detonated by electronic timers. The powerful twin blasts, set off within 100
yards of each other, sprayed a leg-level pattern a shrapnel that ripped into flesh, severed
limbs and caused injuries that most doctors have never seen.” (retrieved from
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/boston-marathon-bomb-devices-made-pressure-
cookers-filled-nails-ball-bearings-report-article-1.1318278 on 06/05/2014)
The suspect carried the bomb in a nylon bag, left it on the spectator side and left. The bomb
then exploded detonated by electronic timers. The effect that this explosion has was quite
severe, even though it was just a pressure cooker bomb. The strategy that the suspect had of
detonating the bomb 2 times was pretty clever as it can cause more injury and the suspect
knew that it would also injure those who came to rescue them

IV. THE “SURPRISE” PRINCIPLE OF WAR

The “surprise” principle of war focus on 2 elements :

 Time
 Perpetual Unreadiness

“ Surprise results from the combination of two elements. The first is time. Surprise is a
temporal phenomenon, and it makes no sense to think about surprise unless we keep it in its
context of time. In my book, Fighting by Minutes: time and the art of war, I show how
successful commanders throughout history have manipulated time to their advantage.
Surprise occurs when one side “turns the time flank” of the other side. Just as sailing ships
tried to gain and retain the weather gage in sea battles of long ago, so modern opponents must
take every opportunity to use the time advantage.
The other element of surprise is perpetual unreadiness. Military organizations are
perpetually unready for combat. Unreadiness is the normal condition of all combatants. An
army, for example, has to perform many functions other than maintaining a fighting
disposition. It has to move, subsist, rest, train, prepare defenses, conduct reconnaissance, and
so on. While it is performing these other activities, it is not well disposed to fight. Instead, a
military organization will come to full battle readiness only when it perceives or anticipates a
threat. Once the threat is apparent, the organization will try to prepare itself for battle as
quickly as possible. It will maintain battle readiness only as long as the threat is there,
whereupon, the organization lapses back into unreadiness.” (“Surprise”, Robert R. Leonhard
p.1)
This means that the element of surprise only focus on the time and unpreparedness of
the target. The time in this bombing was correct because this event was an international
event, there were many people watching this. The bomber probably thought that this was the
best time if they want to kill mass number of people at one time.
 The second part was about unpreparedness. Yes, the spectators, the committee of the
event and also the participant was unaware and does not know that this event would take
place. This is because, there were no threats before. This bombing was sudden and nobody
knew that it was going to take place.

V. THE REACTIONS OF THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY

The International Society obviously condemn this tragedy. Security on international events
tighten around the globe. There were even donation from other being made for the “Boston
Marathon Bombing”.
“Runners in London observed a 30-second silence in respect for the victims of Boston shortly
before the race began, and many runners wore black ribbons on their vests. Organisers also
pledged to donate US$3 to a fund for Boston Marathon victims for every person who finished
the race. Organizers of the 2013 Vancouver Sun Run, which was held on April 21, 2013,
donated $10 from every late entry for the race to help victims of the bombings at the Boston
Marathon. Jamie Pitblado, vice-president of promotions for The Vancouver Sun and The
Province, said the money would go to One Fund Boston, an official charity that's collecting
donations for the victims and their families. Sun Run organizers raised anywhere from
$25,000 to $40,000. There were over 48,000 participants, many dressed in blue and yellow
(Boston colors) with others wearing Boston Red Sox caps “ (Crawford, Tiffany (April 17,
2013). "Vancouver Sun Run to donate $10 per late entry for Boston Marathon victims". The
Vancouver Sun. Retrieved on 06/05/2014)
This means that there are some, in the international society who cares about the Boston
Bombing victims and is trying their best to give assistance to the victims in the form of
solidarity and support (donation).

VI. CONCLUSION

We can conclude that this Boston Bombing is a tragedy to all. We can see from this paper
that psychology and believe of the suspect has driven him to do what he has done. His
strategy of the principle of war comes under “Surprise” principle and this means that the
suspect, attack without giving any warning before hand and when they are unprepared. This
“Surprise” principle is a principle of war with which he uses as a strategy to attack. If he was
to give a thread before, or attack when the target was ready and prepared, this bombing would
have been a failure. The suspect was clever in finding that particular time when the target was
not alert and there were no security on the sight.

VII. REFERENCES
http://www.jhuapl.edu/ourwork/nsa/papers/surprise.pdf access on 06/05/2014