Blowing the legs off of Boston marathon runners seems like something the Joker or Bane would do. A cruel, evil joke. (Think of the Joker's talk with Two-Face at the hospital in the Dark Knight.) It's also a bit like Locke cutting off Jaime's sword fighting hand to shut up him up and stop him from ever being patronizing ever again. "This will help you remember that your father isn't here." Of course people will say any analysis is providing an alibi or an excuse, but that's not true. It's just thinking out loud which is what a blog is for.

The terrorists were two young Chechen brothers living in Boston. 

Originally from Chechnya, but living in the United States since five years, Tamerlan says: "I don't have a single American friend, I don't understand them."

If he wins enough fights ... Tamerlan says he could be selected for the US Olympic team and be naturalized American. Unless his native Chechnya becomes independent, Tamerlan says he would rather compete for the United States than for Russia.

Tamerlan says he doesn't drink or smoke anymore: "God said no alcohol." A muslim, he says: "There are no values anymore," and worries that "people can't control themselves."

I don't think many clueless, spoiled, solipsistic Americans (I vote Republican and train for marathons!) really understand how Russia flattened Chechnya in the 1990s. Or how Russian-backed Serbs slaughtered Muslims in Bosnia.* Or how Israel oppresses the Palestinians. But why blame America? "There are no values anymore"? Is that it? There is reporting that they were/are Muslim extremists.

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*Of course the Left treated Bosnian Serbs as victims of Imperialism. Even though Vietnam was ahead of my time, I was with the anti-war movement on that. But then they were silent on Chechnya and Bosnia or critical of America's Imperialism, that is, anti-American.