Wiston Papers

What happened to the brothers Tsarnaev?

What happened to Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev?  The brothers suspected of placing and detonating the bombs that killed three persons and injured more than 250 others at the Boston Marathon this year.

Their violence was horrible and the impact of their evil has scarred the bodies and souls of scores of spectators and runners for a lifetime.  Why did the young men, ages 26 and 19, do this?  

That question bothers me deeply.   Once the Tsarnaevs were identified as suspects, initial interviews with people who knew them indicated that the men had once “embraced” America.  Dzhokhar especially seemed to be well liked and popular in high school according to former classmates, coaches and teachers.  He was more involved in American life than his brother and had a larger circle of U.S. acquaintances.  Nevertheless, there were early warning signs and they were ignored.

The elder sibling, Tamerlan, seems to have struggled more with life in the United States despite his early success as an amateur boxer here and dreams of competing for America on the Olympic team..  “I don’t have a single American friend,” he would assert later. “I don’t understand them.”  He also had scrapes with the law in America and even was questioned by the FBI at one point about his possible involvement in foreign politics and radicalism.

Did Tamerlan’s increasing isolation and troubles cause him to draw the apparently happier young brother into his darker word?  LIfe after high school did not go smoothly for Dzhokhar;  although he started college he was failing classes as recently as last year.  Did this contribute to his vulnerability?

Scholar Thomas de Waal notes that the Tsarnaevs experienced the same sense of violence and deportation as others of the Chechan diaspora.  Although considered a safe haven by many refugees, America did not hold that same allure for the brothers.  Why?

Increasing suspicion and misunderstanding of Islam by many Americans following 9/11 certainly may have increased their alienation from U.S. society. That experience quite likely exacerbated Tamerlan’s deepening Muslim radicalism and  most certainly had an impact on the younger Dzhokhar who, by some accounts, looked up to Tamerlan.

Likewise their paternal Uncle living in America who called them “losers” rejected the two men. And the separation from their parents who had returned to Chechnya, could have left the brothers susceptible to further disintegration of their social, cultural and psychological foundation.

Still none of this points to inevitable acts of terror or even less violent expressions.  Many Chechens with similar struggles have adapted to American life.  But for the Tsarnaevs there was a tipping point during their years here.  And it manifested itself in the terrible bombings of April 15.

What intervention could have prevented this?  Would stronger more cohesive family ties mitigated against the sense of alienation and isolation?   Did the brothers correctly perceive that too many Americans consider Islam and religious-based fanaticism and terrorism as synonyms?  Did they withdraw from America or did America push them way?

The younger Dzhokhar appears to have enjoyed a wider, potentially stronger tie to mainstream America than did Tamerlan?  How then did Dzhokhar fall under the evil spell of his older sibling?

Unfortunately, I have many questions but far too few answers.  I am certain this could have been prevented.  I’ve written previously about the need for early detection of and treatment for signs of mental illness.   

I don’t think this was inevitable. But no one spotted the warnings until it was too late and no one sought help. Either the Tsarnaev brothers or Americans who knew them  And who is at fault for that?  We or they?

I suspect there is enough blame to be spread widely.  

Steve Coon

April 23, 2013