I want to start off by saying there is nothing ground breaking in this article. No insider information. No SOFREP exclusive that will set you apart as “more in-the-know” against the millions of other American readers out there looking for information on what happened in Boston yesterday. I’m just another heart-broken but even more-so angry American, just like the rest of you.

What happened yesterday was a tragedy, I feel almost like an idiot stating the obvious. But what happened yesterday is significant in other ways as well. 4/15/13, marks the first time the U.S. homeland was hit by an act of terror since the attacks on September 11th, almost twelve years ago. The first time! Think about that for a second. The attempts over the years by Islamic extremists such as Richard Reid (the “Shoe Bomber”), Umar Farouk (the “Underwear Bomber”), Faisal Shahzad (the “Times Square Bomber”), and the countless other radical Islamists who have been arrested in the U.S. by FBI and other law enforcement agencies who were planning acts of terror have all one thing in common – they all failed.

Well, that streak is over.

And before you start criticizing me saying I shouldn’t be too quick to pull the trigger on the “radical Islamist link” – save it. This is an opinion piece and my opinion points at al-Qaeda or al-Qaeda influence. Why, you ask? A couple of things that stand out among all the RUMINT (rumors) we have heard today. The first is talk of a “Black man” with an accent trying to gain access to a restricted area. Where am I going with this? Well, not all Islamic extremists are of Arab descent. Many are African. Umar Farouk, the guy who burned his man parts off when he tried to detonate a bomb sewn in his underwear on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 four years ago, was born in Nigeria, in West Africa, and was trained by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, all the way in Yemen, which is roughly 3,000 miles away.

Who is this nice looking kid in the blue Nike beanie you ask? Oh that’s Umar Farouk… Yes way! He put on an improvised explosive device and had a failed detonation in mid flight. This unassuming, nice looking young kid was going to kill himself and 289 innocent people with a bomb he got in Yemen (where those heavily-bearded and lighter-colored terrorists live). So what we have is most likely an African extremist on the run in Boston, most likely from East Africa, or even just as probable, he was from Nigeria.

The second clue is the use of ball bearings. That’s a signature al-Qaeda bomb trademark used in many of their attacks. I was in Mosul, Iraq in 2004 when an extremist walked into a chow hall and blew himself up, killing 22 people, 18 of whom were Americans (one of which was the first combat casualty from the Intelligence Support Activity since the GWOT started).

The other 51 U.S. soldiers who were wounded had to live through a ball bearing suicide bombing. They were maimed, eviscerated, and dismembered from wounds so horrific that twenty years ago these people probably couldn’t have been saved by the marvels of modern medicine. Some had head injuries so severe that parts of their skulls and brains had to be removed, leaving them with brain damage so extreme that they have lost any traces of who they once were as individuals. This is what we refer to as the “injured” or the “survivors.”

I want you to think about the 144-plus wounded in Boston today who just went through an attack much worse then what happened in Mosul in 2004. I want you to think about them when you say to yourselves, “Only three dead? That’s not so bad.” Because some of you will and have already said this today.

Today is definitely a day we should never forget when Islamist terror struck us at home once again. Many years ago, circa 2003 with the invasion of Iraq, I was sure that attacks would be a common occurrence in the way they were in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. I am glad to have been dead wrong, and I hope that this act of terrorism in Boston will be the last for at least another twelve years. I would be unrealistic to think that  this will never happen again, but unlike many of our citizens, I was not living in la-la land before today.

If I’m wrong about the Islamist connection, you can sue me, this is an Op-Ed. I’ll personally write a letter of apology to the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Just joking – I would never do that.

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Rest in peace to the dead, may their families find peace. To the injured – may you recover swiftly and live your lives the best you can everyday here after. To the hunters on the move out there tonight – be safe and fire first.