Terror Blasts of Mumbai 28 Nov.08

This has made one think! Been talking with friends and encountering many views. Hardpressed to give a simple answer to my daughter's simple question: "why are they killing people like this - Papa?" Mostly we appear to be dealing with symptoms - usually suppressing them - while letting the disease rage on. Like Deepak Chopra said on CNN today, "follow the money and explore the vested interests. It is not one individual State's battle - it is everybody's battle". He questions Bush's "war on terror" carried out by dropping bombs from 35,000 feet high and resulting in many innocent deaths and collateral damage. This "war on terror" is an oxymoron and just serves to turn more moderates into terrorists.

How else can one explain the audacity of youngsters who look barely 25 yrs and appear to have been militarily trained, coming to storm a city and perhaps knowing that they're coming to their deaths. This can only be the work of a jihadi coming to avenge the perpetration of terror on his own people or to their spiritually connected Islamic community.

This shows us how exposed our metropolises are to the scourge of terror. How does one implement security in the humongous rush of a Victoria Terminus that has over a million harried souls fleeting past its portals in their crushing daily commute? How does one patrol streets with an already stretched police force who are ill equipped to deal with armed and highly motivated terrorists?

These are some of the questions one is faced with as we are holed up in our apartments all through this terrible Thursday with the siege continuing and looking like it going to extend into Friday. My daughter's crisis mother from school called up yesterday and announced there's going to be no school today. Today we got another sms announcing no school tomorrow.

How many billions are going to go up in smoke in lost traffic to the country of investment and people? This is perhaps the real goal of the terrorists. Not hostages and the wretched millions that one gets from that, but the instant fear that reverberates in real-time around the globe through the hungry media with its 24x7 media coverage, covering the ultimate reality show. T prize is billiions of dollars worth collateral damage to the country's economy. Mission accomplished! That is - unless we use this opportunity to put aside partisan differences and get the whole country on one platform to unite and resolve the thorny issues that beget such problems. This, it is said today, is going to be the modern, future theatre of war. This is what we need to learn to survive in future. Somewhere we need to make the connection between the technology skills that are typically used in the service of the West to now be put to use in the service of our own country.