But the car bomb also diminished blame. Both a literal and a moral distance were created between the act and its consequences. A mode of operation was created: leave the bomb in a high street, walk calmly away, have someone call in a ‘warning’ a few minutes before the car was timed to explode, not so that lives could be saved (it was usually too late for that) but so that the IRA could say it was all the fault of the authorities for not reacting quickly enough.
