Angry, Alienated, and Stupid

You might remember that, shortly after the Boston Marathon bombing, a Saudi man injured at the scene was identified as a “person of interest” but cleared the next day. Since then, several of the dimmer bulbs of the Right have gone overboard smearing this guy as a dangerous terrorist with connections to the White House. They have evidence he has taken the White House visitors’ tour! He also was visited by the First Lady while in the hospital (along with the other victims of the bombing)! He posted photos of himself and the FLOTUS on his Facebook page! Obviously, there’s a dangerous cover-up going on!

(Why doesn’t anyone ever bring a defamation suit against these bozos? I suppose they don’t have enough assets to make it worthwhile, but still …)

On to the real alleged perps — By now it should be obvious to anyone else that the Tsarnaev brothers were not exactly a crack terrorist unit. As Charles Pierce says,

As the days go by, we learn more and more that what we were dealing with here, as deadly as their actions were, was a plot by the Wayne and Garth of terrorism, a couple of guys who could screw up a two-car funeral if you spotted them the hearse.

It’s unlikely these guys were being directed by any global jihadi movement; more likely they were angry and alienated young men acting out their anger and alienation. Which is not to say that angry and alienated men don’t join actual global jihadi movements.