Who Knows Why?

Krystle Campbell

On the trail of Boston bombers
by Robert A. Waters

Just look at the dead: Krystle Campbell, 29, the hard-working manager of a steak house; Lu Lingzi, a Chinese graduate student majoring in finance; and Martin Richard, an eight-year-old boy.  Place them in a mall, or on a beach, or inside a church, and they would have fit in.  But with a blast of shrapnel, three vibrant lives drained onto a Boston street.  

If the FBI is right, two smarmy-looking college students launched a grisly assault on the Boston Marathon, and on the country that took them in, gave them freedom, and a chance. 

So why did Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and his brother Dzhokhar, 19, choose to attack the United States?

Their uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, has a theory.  “They’re losers,” he said.  They were not “able to settle themselves and hating everyone else who did.”

He may be onto something there.  So many perpetrators who commit mass murders are loners, unable to relate to others.  Foul spirits lost in the shadows, they have few if any meaningful relationships.  Led by resentments, they can easily careen off the tracks of sanity. 

But I don’t really care about the creeps who commit these mass killings.  Many millions of people have trouble relating to others and never harm anyone.  And anyway, Dzhokhar, at least, smoked pot with other students and listened to rap music.  He had a girlfriend, and friends in the college he attended.  He wasn’t a lone-wolf.

He and his brother came from Chechnya.  For decades, Russia has attempted to exterminate the Chechens, leaving their cities rubble-strewn and uninhabitable.  These bloody wars have left many Chechens scarred, but Tamerlan, Dzhokhar, and their families had the good fortune to gain political asylum in America.

Speaking of his nephews, Tsarni said, “They don't deserve to even exist on this Earth, that is what I think.  I just wish they never existed.  I'm wordless.  I'm shocked.”

Now Tamerlan is dead, wounded in a shootout with police, killed after his brother drove over him in a desperate attempt to escape.  Few Americans will grieve his passing.

Dzhokhar, wounded by police, gave up after hiding out for nearly twenty-four hours.  In typical American fashion, he was taken to the hospital instead of the gallows.

And I’m glad.  We need to determine why he and his brother turned on the country that gave them respite, even if it makes little difference to the wounded souls and grieving families. 

But when it’s all said and done, Dzhokhar, if he’s found guilty, should be executed.  It’s shameful that Massachusetts has no death penalty for crimes such as these, but at least the Feds occasionally execute terrorists.  Ten or twenty years from now, maybe Dzhokhar will get the needle, a ridiculously small price to pay for the pain and suffering he’s caused.

Whatever the case, let’s pray for the dead and for the survivors.  And let’s pray for our country.