Monday, July 2, 2007

Worst. Terrorists. Ever.

Look, I don't mean to detract from the danger posed by the London/Glasgow bombers, but can we please take a moment, catch our breath, and examine just what these guys have managed to do? They (going on the assumption that the London "bombers" and the guys who crashed the car into the Glasgow airport are the same people) managed to poorly wire explosive devices in two Mercedes sedans, and destroyed one Jeep Cherokee. The only person injured was one of the bombers. Moreover, the explosive devices were fairly meager in nature. One need only look at what exactly happened to the Glasgow bomb in order to see that the reaction to the London bombs has indeed been hyperbolic. Though gasoline works well as a flammable liquid, it does not work so well as an explosive agent. I mean, it "explodes," but rather weakly, and certainly with not enough force to propel thousands of nails through the air.

That's not to say that the bombers posed no threat, and there is certainly something worrisome to the reports that the bombers are well educated members of the middle class, but their efforts at this point are more likely to inspire ridicule than copycat attacks.