Jim Geraghty of National Review Online ponders important issues related to the Christmas attack in Nashville.

The Christmas Day explosion in downtown Nashville wasn’t just frightening terrorism; it was creepy, with an almost cinematic sense of timing and drama.

The suicide bomber either used gunshots or audio of gunshots to attract attention shortly after 5 a.m. on Christmas morning. A loudspeaker on the recreational vehicle started playing a woman’s voice declaring and repeating, “This area must be evacuated now. If you can hear this message, evacuate now,” in a dispassionate tone fit for an airport terminal-change announcement. In between, the speakers played “Downtown” by Petula Clark from 1964. This was some Joker-level theatrics.

And then at 6:29 a.m., the bomb detonated, injuring three people. …

… Here’s what’s spectacularly odd: This might be the most successful attack on our telecommunications infrastructure ever, and it wasn’t by a terrorist group. In fact, it’s not clear that the AT&T building was deliberately targeted. …

… The bomber apparently did not intend to kill innocent people, but he managed to put together a bomb powerful enough to kill many people — and the bomber could never know for certain that no innocent people or police would be within the blast radius. And of course, if you knock out 911 service, you put many lives at risk — an ambulance might not get there in time for someone who’s suffering a heart attack or had a car accident or the fire department won’t make it to a blaze. At this hour, no one has found any manifesto or suicide note from the bomber. This took elaborate and meticulous planning, and there are some signs the bomber had put his affairs in order before launching his attack. …

… In the aftermath of the [2013] California attack, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission required power companies to upgrade their physical security. But it is very difficult to protect critical infrastructure in an urban environment from a bomb as powerful as the one in that RV.