Mideast bombings are orchestrated attacks, U.S. incidents the work of "lone madmen" - Why is that?

This may not be original territory, and if not I apologize, but something struck me funny about this latest series of shootings in the U.S.

Anytime we hear about suicide bombings in the middle east (and I admit that we don't "hear" of these as much as we once did) we are conditioned to believe that they are the work of terrorist groups.

The leaders of the group recruit impressionable young people to die for the cause of freedom from the tyranny of the U.S. government. Death to the infidels.

After much planning, these brainwashed or at minimum over the top zealous individuals strap on bombs and inflict as much carnage as possible. Their reward? 72 virgins on the other side and all of that.

Which brings us to the United States. These suicide attacks (usually by gun) are seemingly always the work of a lone nut. Little if any advanced organization or collaboration. Mostly shock expressed that he would do such a thing. Maybe an inkling of weirdness. Odd voice mail messages, or anti-social behavior.

Would it be unreasonable to believe that these "lone nut" attacks in the U.S. are also the result of organized "terror activity." I'm not attempting to make any leaps here as to who might be behind this terror, only attempting to draw what is a fair parallel.

If impressionable young people (sometimes the children of wealthy families) can be recruited in the middle east to kill themselves and many others for a cause, wouldn't it be reasonable to surmise that the same thing happens in the United States?

I could certainly say a lot more on this subject. I have my opinions, as I'm sure do many of you. But this is as good a jumping off point as any. Thoughts?

reply to post by notquitesure

A lone nut can acquire and operate a gun. A lone nut usually cannot build a sophisticated bomb. It takes skill, and if you do it wrong, you explode. The suicide bombers in the ME are facilitated by existing, well-known networks which are not as influential here. (And if they were, they'd be supplying the lone nuts with bombs, not guns.)

The same thing does happen in the United States. However, they generally target places of public importance or aim to use explosives with the objective of large scale devastation.

The reason that most suicide bombers are part of groups is that making a suicide bomb is not exactly a trivial feat. Many many home-made explosives (including the second wave of suicide bombers in the UK) fail to explode properly and obviously such a thing is not ideal.

The general term for this is 'radicalised'. Once someone starts showing signs they might be willing to die for their cause, thee people who have access to the explosives and knowledge are the ones who make it happen.

So to answer your question: Both types occur in both places, but individual acts tend to be spree killings, and group acts tend to be bombings or suicide bombings. Only rarely do you end up with the Mumbai massacres or similar, as if the police were better trained and equipped that would have ended in a few minutes.

You raise an interesting premise and I reply because it's a concerning one. I don't believe this has happened in the U.S. yet. The best argument is the lack of logic to the way these attacks have happened. Terrorism only works, by definition, if furthering a political cause by the terror of a population. What cause here? They don't even leave suicide notes, in most cases and we never even known why ..in their own dark thoughts ... they did what they did.

On the other hand, in the Middle East.. Well, it's not so murky as to what, why and how.

Palestinian Authority Spent $78 Million of Annual Budget on Families of Suicide Bombers

Life Insurance for Palestinian Suicide Bombers

I'm sure I can find others if I look hard enough for the fighters in Iraq and perhaps even a % of Afghanistan although I tend to think the Afghan are more the true believer variety and really doing it entirely for the cause alone. The rest? Well... It's hard not to call it a group thing when the group supports the familiaes as well as claiming credit for the event and usually why it was done.

What concerns me, as I said in my first lines? It COULD happen here.....and there are elements in American society ...to leave it there.... who could be bought by foreign influence to do what they do anyway in violence, but with a slightly different focus and more purpose to it. That is a bad scenario and one I think does keep the Feds awake at night with.

I see what you are getting at, but you are missing a few details.

With the exception of the Benghazi attack.
1. The suicide bombings in the middle east, more often than not, are Sunni vs. Shiite.
2. They mostly attack Govt./police, mosques and markets.
3. They are in the news at least once a week still, if not more.
4. It does not require a lot of planning. Just find a crowd and blammo.

If your terrorism theory were to hold up, those organizations would have megaphones on the rooftops bragging that they had struck the US on American soil.

Where in reality, we have little to no explanation or reasoning for the "lone nut" attacks.

I appreciate the replies so far. They certainly offer perspective and bring up some points that I hadn't thought about.

Here's where my thoughts are running with regard to the United States...

A lot of money stands to be made and power consolidated through

a) stricter gun regulations

b) a larger presence for TSA/Homeland Security Forces

We know from viewing the pattern in the Middle East that recruiting young people willing to go out with a bang can be accomplished. Could nefarious government agencies in the U.S. with unlimited budgets be doing the same thing?

Or, maybe even farther out in left field, could groups not associated with our government be doing the same thing, and our government/media propaganda machine dismisses the possibility because it doesn't fit their agenda? This scenario seems less likely to me, because to my knowledge, no group is taking any kind of credit for these incidents.

So the most likely scenarios to me are either a true lone nut, copy cat environment, or a series of governmental black ops (since no one is claiming responsibility). Painfully, I can see how those who favor a bigger, more intrusive government stand to "profit." Tell me what I'm missing here.

Originally posted by FurvusRexCaeli
reply to post by notquitesure

 

A lone nut can acquire and operate a gun. A lone nut usually cannot build a sophisticated bomb. It takes skill, and if you do it wrong, you explode. The suicide bombers in the ME are facilitated by existing, well-known networks which are not as influential here. (And if they were, they'd be supplying the lone nuts with bombs, not guns.)

ANY lone nut with a web connection can walk into a hardware store and come out with the materials to construct a military quality bomb.
Nails and an accelerant is just one thought, maybe a home depot bucket if you wanna go grand scale and get the bonus level virgin in heaven...
ANY moron can build a bomb, and often they do.