As much as we can, and should, condemn terrorism, we have to admire the ingenuity of some terrorists.
One of the more interesting books on terrorism I have ever read – and I have read HUNDREDS over the past two decades (in addition to writing five myself) – was published back in 2008 and went by an odd title: Buda’s Wagon. Subtitled “A brief history of the car bomb”, it tells the story of a terrorist attack in 1920 when an angry Italian anarchist named Mario Buda exploded a horse-drawn wagon filled with dynamite and iron scrap near New York’s Wall Street, killing 40 people.
You read that right. A horse-drawn wagon full of explosives.
How fascinating is that? An actual horse-drawn wagon. This of course strikes us as quaint from a 2019 perspective. After all, when was the last time YOU saw a horse-drawn wagon on a major thoroughfare? Mind you, back in 1920 this sight would have struck no one as out of the ordinary, horse-drawn wagons being ubiquitous even as the ‘horseless carriage’ was taking over.
What this shows is two things as far as I can see it. First, terrorism often comes at us out of ordinary settings. A guy with a backpack. A women in a burqa. Someone with a duffel bag. It is not always so obvious.
Secondly, terrorists avail themselves with what they have at hand. Mario Buda had a horse-drawn cart so a horse-drawn cart ended up being his vehicle of destruction. If he had owned a Model T Ford (black of course!) he would undoubtedly have used that.
Suicide attack in Afghanistan kills eight
On this day in 2009, a suicide bomber in a horse-drawn cart killed eight people in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar. Police officers apparently tried to stop the bomber after hotel security guards had become suspicious of the man and ordered him to stop. Unfortunately the bomber was able to detonate his explosives near a hotel and local government office. It is likely the Taliban were behind the attack.
I suppose if you were to see a horse-drawn cart in Ottawa you might do a double take. I am not so sure most Afghans would. Then again, terrorism is so rife in that country it is equally uncertain what can be done to prevent it.
