Terror Attacks, Misinformation and Callous Responses

Yet again the spectre of multiple deaths and casualties due to an act of terrorism dominates the headlines and social media. This time, the attack targeted young people leaving a concert venue in Manchester, England.

Latest available information lists a single suicide bomber detonating an improvised explosive device in an area where concert-goers exited the arena into a train station; military operational planners call  a spot like this a 'choke point', an area where a lot of people will be in a confined space, offering a prime target to terrorists. Investigators believe the attacker maximized casualties by using nuts, bolts and nails as shrapnel in his device in order to inflict horrific, traumatic injuries on those who somehow survived the blast itself.

There will be ongoing news coverage throughout the day, no doubt; there will also be more misinformation disseminated via social media, intentionally or otherwise, by way of rumor and/or innuendo.

Before the dust had settled in Manchester yesterday the internet was afire; I saw several social media posts indicating multiple attackers had thrown gasoline-filled balloons inside the concert hall. No mention of anything of that nature occurring in media reports this morning, however. I also read entries making remarks such as, "It serves her right.", a reference to the performer's statement in a secuirty video last year in which she said she 'hates America' right after licking donuts on a display tray in a bakery.

While that particular incident angered me personally, we cannot gloss over or look past the tragic loss of life just to hit back at this far-left, self-centered alleged 'celebrity', one who champions the cause, indirectly, of those who would commit these heinous acts of terror.

We are better than that...or we should be.

We are told by mainstream media not to 'rush to judgement' and call this a  terrorist incident, even though this act was designed to spread death and fear among the British populace, no matter the actor's cause or religious affiliation. However, when someone detonates a bomb in a confined area packed with young people in order to kill as many of them as possible, it can be called nothing else.