Response to Boston bombings ‘will be incredibly disproportionate’

The investigation into Monday’s Boston marathon bombings has so far yielded few results. But activist David Swanson, warns that the authorities’ response will be “disproportionate,” causing a spike in “fear, and in police and military presence.”

The FBI said Tuesday that they had neither suspects nor anyone in custody related to the explosions that killed three people and injured over 170. Police are calling on witnesses to assist the investigation, which has been called “the most complex crime scene” in the history of the Boston PD.

David Swanson an anti-war activist spoke to RT to give his view on possible responses to the deadly attack and why it occurred in the first place despite all the security measures.

RT:We saw the US significantly step up security following the 9/11 attacks over a decade ago. Can we expect similar measures now?

DS:There is a huge escalation in security and in fear and in police presence. There was a horrific scene in Boston. But these three dead – you know, don’t begin to compare to how many Americans die from automobiles, cigarettes, suicide, eating at McDonalds, bad healthcare. The response will be incredibly disproportionate. We will see an intense upsurge in fear, and in police and military presence.

The fortunate thing – the best thing we have going for us right now – is that they don’t know who did it. Because anything that would be gained from knowing who did it in terms of preventing that person from acting again or deterring others would be far outweighed by the negative effects.

We always make everything far worse when we know who did it, especially if that was someone foreign. Then trying to investigate the causes that made it more likely becomes acquitted with supporting the crime, and the crime becomes acquitted with an act of war. So, right now my hope is that they don’t figure it out.

RT:After nearly a dozen years of increased surveillance, how was it even possible for someone to carry out such a major attack in the US?

DS: Well, I’ve never been involved in attempting to plan such an attack, but I imagine it’s not that difficult, technically speaking. There are publically available recipes for making bombs.  It is entirely possible to conceal a bomb in a backpack or some other device that a camera can’t see through.

This illusion that technology is going to save us, that filling our skies with drones and covering our buildings with surveillance cameras, and treating every airport airline passenger as a potential terrorist is going to save us is an incredible delusion.

I mean the causes that are possible here range from incredible inequality in our society, the promotion of violence in our society, mental illness, anger at our foreign policies. But these are all things that can be easily and rationally addressed. The idea that we are going to continue on the course we are on in these terms and then save ourselves through technology is an incredibly misguided delusion. It’s just not going to happen.   

RT:Doesn't the Boston attack justify America's global war on terror?

DS: War is never justified. And we have seen a predictable and predicted increase in terrorism throughout the course of the global war on the globe, or the ‘global war on terror,’ as they call it. You cannot fight a war against a tactic. You cannot kill people and eliminate violence by other people. In fact, you have just the opposite effect, as top US military commanders have confessed.

You are creating more enemies than you remove when you blow up people’s houses with drones. You know, the drone warfare and missile strikes have become the new Abu Ghraib torture scandal, the greatest recruiting tool for entire US terrorism. I have no notion of whether this attack in Boston came from abroad or who was responsible. The best possible reaction is going to be if this was a white male, middle-class and lone attacker. Then you might see a little bit of interest in what possibly led to it without acquitting it with supporting it.

But the idea that if it came from abroad you are then justified in going and bombing some country is going to make everything dramatically worse. That’s what I’m hoping against right now. They grabbed a Saudi man based on appearances and suspected him. And I have no idea if he was connected or not.

But we already had an attack on 9/11 primarily by a bunch of Saudi men and we went and destroyed Iraq and are still bombing Afghanistan today. That is what we need to avoid at this moment.