The Boston Marathon Bombings occurred April 15th, 2013, on Patriot’s Day. At approximately 2:49 p.m, two pressure cooker bombs, placed among the race’s spectators, exploded near the finish line of the marathon. The attack was sudden. The explosions occurred within 8 to 12 seconds of each other, being separated by roughly 50-100 yards. The bombs, filled with pellets and nails, killed 3 people and wounded 260 others. Four days later, the bombers were identified as brothers, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev. It has since been discovered that while the brothers were not affiliated with any specific terrorist organization. Tamerlan, wounded the day before in a police chase, died at Bethel Israel Hospital in the days following the brothers’ …show more content…
Instead of killing themselves (which did not work out in the movie due to panic), they left bombs behind and fled. The terrorists in the movie were unsuccessful in bombing the marathon/runners because of the fear of killing themselves. This fear was not a factor for the Tsarnaev brothers due to their choice to not utilize suicide bombs. One thing that they couldn’t have learned from the movie was what to do after fleeing. After being found to be suspects in the bombings, they became much more hectic. Going on the run, killing a cop, and stealing a car. (CNN)
The strategy of terrorism used in the movie, Four Lions, appears to be attrition. The five wannabe terrorists attack a state that they are not a part of to assert the power of the terrorist group Al Qaeda, this fits the definition of terrorism created by Kydd and Walter. Suicide terrorism is commonly used when there is a power imbalance between the two opposing groups. A group of five terrorists is no match for an entire country, so their goal was to wear the United States down with small attacks. Attrition is also the same type of terrorism used by the Boston Marathon