CERTAIN OBVIOUS FACTS AND MEANINGFUL QUESTIONS

How destructive were these attacks, really?

We have a few hundred dead and a similar number injured. Obviously the casualty figures indicates something other than a typical battle. About ninety people were mowed down at the train station.

How many people die in India from such attacks a year? What percent of the total killed and wounded in this single attack? Is it even one percent?

How many people die from other causes in India every day? Accidents in traveling for example, house fires, domestic violence, nonpolitical crime, etc.?

Was this a military victory for someone?

The terrorists were pretty destructive for fifteen purported assailants.
Still it is no miracle that automatic weapons and grenades can kill a lot of
people in a few minutes.

Ironically, they seem to have been allowed to rampage throughout the area without immediate confrontation. Did they take out existing security officials or were such people absent from the scene until the occupation of the buildings? Or was there just an arrogant sense of invulnerability in that part of the city?

Obviously the stupid destructive mission of these executioners was successful at least in terms of killing a bunch of civilians. Not much of a trick really, massacring scores at a railway station.

Yet at the end of the day the militants were slaughtered and one taken captive. Perhaps five got away. Apparently the source of the attack will be discerned from the captive and an abundance of other evidence.

Mumbai is pretty much back to normal.

Was this a distraction?

The whole event seemed designed to be a spectacle and to a large extent it succeeded in that regard. The refusal of the Indian government to negotiate may have reduced the propaganda value of the mission leaving us with a pile of corpses and not even a crumby excuse for yet another heroic act of martyrdom or maybe something else.

Perhaps someone with bad news elsewhere wants to change the subject.

Was this a provocation?

Many might take it that way but who is doing the provoking? What are the demands of the terrorists. Do we know anything about them or are we just not being told what they want?

If this is just an introduction to some new group it might be thought of as more of an introduction. The Deccan Mujahadeen, is it real, is it really new?

If this is a provocation who would benefit from war between India and Pakistan. Perhaps some Kashmiri groups think they would, perhaps some of the various Islamic militias somewhere, like Pakistan or India think it might achieve some result for them. I suppose AQ will let us know where they want us to think they stand on Mumbai. Elements in Israel or even the United States might like this, don't you think?

What about China? Do they want peace with India, a major economic and political rival? Just asking.



Just another attack in India?

There are so many bombings and militant attacks in India every day that this attack in Mumbai stood out in that it was even noticed outside of India. Of course the targets included Indian and foreign elites so these
people mattered to the corporate media more than the usual targets of such violence. It was good for cable news ratings and perhaps imperial propaganda.

It could be just another attack that was a homicidal outlier, a statistical anomaly. Somehow these dudes were just more potent than many attackers.
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A region of heavily armed folks.

There seems to be an abundance of light arms and explosives in South and West Asia. Militias are all over the place in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. So it should come as no surprise that folks can get a bunch of grenades and AK's and kill folks if they really want to do that.

INDIA ROARS ONWARD

Perhaps we can learn from the Indians not to let this sort of tragedy
drive us crazy. We don't need to make terrorist attacks worse than they are by trying to make everyplace a police state. Mumbai is bustling again and life continues. India is basically not afraid and we shouldn't be afraid either. It is enough to die once, no?

MUMBAI ATTACK LOOKS LIKE AQ MODUS OPERANDI

The attack in Mumbai looks like some of those AQ plots that never quite made it into operation, at least in terms of having so many moving parts. Of course 911 was "successful" but other plots involving even more airplanes never made it into implementation.

Of course it looks like attackers, at least some from abroad, came ashore and proceeded to attack ten or more targets. They were suicidal and seemed interested in killing civilians at their various targets. Of course this maya be related to Jammu and Kashmir. In India there are a lot of attacks by insurgents and terrorists. This was on a larger scale, and obviously meant to be a spectacle.

It sounds a lot like a military operation because of the story that the group came in on a dingey after being left ten nautical miles beyond Indian waters. That requires some discipline. The terrorists reportedly
impressed the Indian forces fighting them with their professionalism with grenades and the AK.

If there is a Deccan Mujahadeen, which is the group we are told takes credit for this then we can wonder if they want to create a Hyderabad emirate. Of course the danger of communal violence after this attack by
people claiming to be doing it for the sake of Islam is heightened. Hopefully moderation and good sense prevail.

We must remember that there may be elements in Pakistan or elements in Islam that have carried out these attacks or supported them in some essential manner. This involvement of a few does not make all Pakistanis or Islamic people guilty of this assault. That is a very irrational idea and I address this admonition to Americans who are likely to need such reminders.

I don't think that the Pakistani government supported this attack although some may want it to look that way, like AQ in particular.