During his first statement on the Boston bombing Monday, President Obama deliberately avoided using the word “terrorism” to describe the attack. Instead, he used the word “tragedy.”
Appearing on MSNBC, Obama adviser David Axelrod speculated on the president’s use of language.
“The word has taken on a different meaning since 9/11,” Axelrod said of the phrase “terrorist attack.”
“You use those words and it means something very specific in people’s mind. And I’m sure what was going through the president’s mind is — we really don’t know who did this — it was tax day. Was it someone who was pro–you know, you just don’t know. And so I think his attitude is, let’s not put any inference into this, let’s just make clear that we’re going to get the people responsible.”
It’s not hard to figure out where Axelrod’s mind was going. He was doing his best to avoid directly blaming the Tea Party outright, but that’s where his mind was.
If that’s where the president’s mind is…
The fact is, the Boston bombing was an act of terrorism regardless of who turns out to be behind it. It bears similarities to the 2010 New York Times Square bombing attempt, in that it was an attack on a high-profile public place. That turned out to be Islamic terrorism. The underwear bomber was an Islamic terrorist. The fact that the Boston bombs were packed with ball bearings hints that they were similar to improvised explosive devices of the type commonly used by terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan and Israel. They were even described as IEDs Monday afternoon.
President Obama won’t even describe the Ft. Hood massacre as terrorism, which it clearly was. He has pledged to bring the terrorists who killed four Americans at Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012, to justice, yet so far no one has been detained for very long in connection with that attack and the US has struck at no terrorist base or camp months after the attack. On Monday Obama pledged that the government would “get to the bottom of” the Boston “tragedy.”
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