Star comment: Homeland terror rears ugly head
For over a decade American troops have been in action thousands of miles away from their homeland in a war against terror to prevent extremists bringing death and carnage to the doorstep of the United States, as they did so heinously in 2001.
Drones patrol the skies in hot and dusty places and take out suspects remotely in villages and hamlets which Westerners have never heard of and could never find on a map.
And yet yesterday America's nightmare came home again.
The bombs which ripped apart the Boston Marathon targeted the innocents. They seem to have been placed among the crowd near the finishing line of this prestigious event. Three dead. Many more injured.
If the attacks were meant to secure maximum publicity for some cause, they achieved their aim. And if they were meant to lead to dismay and confusion, they have gone some way to doing that too.
Three die in bomb blasts at Boston Marathon
Speaking about the bombings, President Barack Obama did not use the t-word, although another White House official has been less reticent, saying they are being treated as an act of terrorism.
While there are so many questions unanswered, it is important not to leap to conclusions. The list of usual suspects is long, with al-Qaida at the top of the list. It has tried unsuccessfully on several occasions to extract its revenge against the United State in the face of a relentless campaign which has scattered its members and disrupted its power to operate.
The American security services are very much on al-Qaida's case but, as the IRA once said, they have to be lucky all the time, whereas the terrorists only have to be lucky once.
As investigators assemble the evidence, a better sense will emerge of the capabilities and sophistication of the culprits which will enable them to sieve out the false trails and red herrings and concentrate on the most likely possibilities.
Initial indications are that the devices were small and relatively crude. Home-grown terrorism in America is rare, but the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995, which claimed 168 lives and was the work of a former US Army soldier, shattered forever any illusions that America was immune.
Meanwhile Britain has its own reasons to be concerned. The funeral of Lady Thatcher tomorrow should be a solemn occasion, but there are those who are seeing it as a high profile stage which they can exploit to make some sort of point or protest.
And then there is that direct parallel with Boston – the London Marathon this weekend. With a 26-mile route through the heart of a city, police cannot be everywhere. As ever, the primary weapon in the face of a potential threat is to be alert and vigilant.
Quite rightly, the London Marathon will go ahead as planned, but quite rightly security is being reviewed in the light of events Stateside.
The bombers seek to destroy and disrupt ordinary life. Ordinary life going on, so far as possible, as normal, defies and defeats the terrorists by making their malign efforts futile.
