“Bus attacks by suicide bombers have fairly monotonous features. They occur during the morning rush hour because ridership is high at that time. Bombers board buses near the end of their routes in order to maximize the number of people in the bus at the time of detonation. They preferentially board at the middle doors in order to be centered in the midst of the passengers. They detonate shortly after boarding the bus because of concern that they will be discovered, restrained, and prevented from detonating. They stand as they detonate in order to provide a direct, injurious path for shrapnel. Head and chest injuries are common among seated passengers. The injured are usually those some distance away from the bomber; those nearby are killed outright, those at the ends of the bus may escape with minor injuries. The primary mechanism of injury of those not killed outright by the blast is impaling by shrapnel. Shrapnel is sometimes soaked in poison, eg organophosphate crop insecticides, to increase lethality.”
Resilience Engineering: Concepts and Precepts
Chapter 13, Taking Things in One’s Stride: Cognitive Features of Two Resilient Performances
Richard I. Cook and Christopher Nemeth
“But wouldn’t it be luxury to fight in a war some time where, when you were surrounded, you could surrender?”
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Ernest Hemingway
Many thanks for this, Jay.
I have reposted it after applying my “DoubleQuotes” formatting on Zenpundit. I have long thought that two powerful quotes, appropriately juxtaposed, can say more by virtue of their juxtaposition than they can as two isolated remarks, and your choice of quotes here brilliantly illustrates that point.
Again, my thanks.
There are 2 very good reasons why suicide bombing can never happen in the US
1. High explosives are carefully regulated and only licensed people can have them
2. The death penalty is always applied to suicide bombers
[well played, Grey Eagle]
Discerning the tradecraft and operational patterns of an enemy does allow one to take measures to mitigate the effects of their attacks.
Once these kinds of attacks become commonplace here, there will be three levels of response by the government and media.
First, all such attacks will be blamed on Conservatives, Racists, and TEA Party members. We have seen this before in other incidents.
Second, when this proves to be untenable, there will be an attempt to downplay and ignore the attacks.
Three, when that becomes untenable, there will be efforts to force us to “understand” the “justifiable grievances” of the terrorists; without mentioning “Jihad”, “Islam”, or “terrorism”.
At no point will the efforts of either the government or the media be concentrated on either protecting the public or preventing further attacks. They will be too busy using them as an excuse to at best inconvenience, and at worst oppress innocent Americans.
However, the knowledge of how the terrorists are operating will make the ends of cars in public transit more popular. Until government regulation finds some way to force people to the middle of cars, or until terrorist tactics change.
Subotai Bahadur
Many mass murders are committed because they make the murderer and his/her cause (if any) famous. Remove the publicity and the crimes will not be committed. Reporting these mass murders is the same as shouting ‘fire’ in a crowded theatre in 1919.
I approve of terrorists who express their outrage by pouring gasoline on themselve while standing on the court house steps and then setting themselves on fire. These people should be reported, mass murderers should be ignored.