[rajatsuri]

I was hoping someone would write an essay like this, but this one falls short of the mark with some fluff in the second half. I think the most important debate topics from this incident are this:

- Does it make sense to shut down an entire city on a business day to catch a criminal, even one with suspected small explosives? I would argue 'no' in this case with all the data, but it could still make sense in a case like the Mumbai terror attacks with several trained terrorists who knew what they were doing

- Should we applaud the fact that people were 'willing to stay in lockdown' as I've seen several Boston residents say? My opinion: absolutely not, people stayed inside for fear not bravery, which is exactly the goal of 'terror'-ism

- Does this incident mean that more people should have personal guns/weapons to defend themselves? I think 'no' on this as well. What I would have liked to see is every private citizen outside Watertown to operate as they would normally in defiance of the terrorists, with heightened police presence in risky areas. The whole point of security is to defend liberty, and by impeding the liberty of private citizens for even one day, an argument could be made that the terrorists partially succeeded in their goal