The bombs were designed to injure and terrorize. They were highly effective. What was sophisticated about them was their ability to synchronize two separate and distinct pressure cooker devices.
The bombs were designed to injure and terrorize. They were highly effective. What was sophisticated about them was their ability to synchronize two separate and distinct pressure cooker devices.
Another goal was to get attention.
The effect would have been much greater if they had killed dozens. In fact, a truck bearing a couple of tons of fuel oil saturated explosives coming at the marathon runners around the beginning of the race would have killed hundreds. Bottom line is that this attack reeks of amateurism. Classic Iraqi attack - a vanguard of attackers blasting away at police road blocks on full automatic to clear the way, as the bomb truck lumbers into the target and detonates.
Even the scenario I put up would represent a waste of human resources. A better strategy to be to park a stolen delivery truck filled with a fertilizer bomb next to some random office building and detonate it remotely after the driver is whisked away in a getaway car. This whole Boston thing reeks of amateurism.