Manchester: my two cents

My friend Bryan Strawser has said on more than one occasion that "The war is here, and it doesn't really care if you want to be a part of it."

On Monday evening we received yet another chilling reminder.

Police say 19 people are confirmed dead and around 50 others are injured following reports of an explosion Monday night at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England.

Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police Ian Hopkins held a late press conference and said that they are currently treating the explosion at Manchester Arena as a "terrorist incident" until they have further information.

"This is a very concerning time for everyone," Hopkins said. He also said that further details would be released when they have a clearer picture.

As you can imagine, Ms. Grande was devastated by this incident.

broken.
from the bottom of my heart, i am so so sorry. i don't have words.

— Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande) May 23, 2017

Sadly, a fair number of responses to this tweet were people reminding Grande of her unflattering comments about America, her anti-Trump stance, her sympathy for Muslim refugees, etc. To conjure up those issues in light of the awful atrocities at one of her concerts is just disgusting and downright cruel. Don't be one of those people, k?

Admittedly I wasn't at all familiar with Grande's style of music but from what I understand, she largely appeals to teenagers. So whatever soulless ghouls carried out this attack knew darn well that a lot of kids would be in attendance at that concert.

Not only was the venue significant, so was the date of May 22.

NOTE: Manchester explosion happens on 4th anniversary of the public murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby.

Dates matter to Jihadi terrorists. pic.twitter.com/dRhyaWN9AV

— Sebastian Gorka DrG (@SebGorka) May 23, 2017

Just as it was no coincidence that the Benghazi terror attack occurred on the 11th anniversary of the 9/11/01 attacks on U.S. soil.

Naturally there's a lot of information still flowing at this point, but early indications are a homemade bomb was detonated by a suicide bomber. The device was described as one of those "nail bombs" similar to what was used in the Brussels attack last year.

Perhaps one of the more disturbing aspects of this attack (and something Strawser has also alluded to before) is that it was another "soft target." That is, people are essentially preoccupied and thus very vulnerable to harm, just like in Nice, France last year when people were wrapped up in Bastille Day festivities or December 2015 in San Bernardino, CA where employees were enjoying a Christmas party.

It would seem to me that if one of the goals of terrorists is to have people of the western world skittish about merely living everyday life, the incidents which have occurred over the past few years have gone a long way to accomplishing that.

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