Mumbai
"Only a fool fights in a burning house." - Klingon aphorism
Sixty hours.
Nearly 200 dead and 250 injured.
The last of the gunmen were killed during fighting in the Taj Mahal Hotel, while the place burned. In keeping with the above aphorism, I suppose that makes them, ultimately, fools.
Even more foolish is that one allowed himself to be taken alive. Foolish, because these are fanatics who are trained to suicide rather than be taken by the authorities. He's now being squeezed for information about the attacks and how they were planned, as well as who instigated things.
Questions are being asked now, whether the Maharashtra State government knew that an attack was coming in Mumbai, the financial heart of the nation. There's already been one minister volunteering his own resignation as atonement.
And the finger in India pointed directly at Pakistan, which has bankrolled troublemakers in India in the past (and where al Qaeda and the Taliban still exist). Pakistan has demurred and is volunteering to help in the investigation, and to tell the truth India has enough of a worry with a homegrown Hindu terrorist group. The United States is hoping that tensions do not rise between the two South Asian nuclear powers.
Which might have been the point of the exercise - drive another wedge between Pakistan and India and hopefully start a war that will distract away from the Total War Against Terror.
The survivors bury the dead and demand answers, some without knowing what to ask. The leaders of the operation will no doubt learn a few lessons and try again.
Sixty hours.
Nearly 200 dead and 250 injured.
The last of the gunmen were killed during fighting in the Taj Mahal Hotel, while the place burned. In keeping with the above aphorism, I suppose that makes them, ultimately, fools.
Even more foolish is that one allowed himself to be taken alive. Foolish, because these are fanatics who are trained to suicide rather than be taken by the authorities. He's now being squeezed for information about the attacks and how they were planned, as well as who instigated things.
Questions are being asked now, whether the Maharashtra State government knew that an attack was coming in Mumbai, the financial heart of the nation. There's already been one minister volunteering his own resignation as atonement.
And the finger in India pointed directly at Pakistan, which has bankrolled troublemakers in India in the past (and where al Qaeda and the Taliban still exist). Pakistan has demurred and is volunteering to help in the investigation, and to tell the truth India has enough of a worry with a homegrown Hindu terrorist group. The United States is hoping that tensions do not rise between the two South Asian nuclear powers.
Which might have been the point of the exercise - drive another wedge between Pakistan and India and hopefully start a war that will distract away from the Total War Against Terror.
The survivors bury the dead and demand answers, some without knowing what to ask. The leaders of the operation will no doubt learn a few lessons and try again.
posted by Walt at 8:56 AM
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