November 28, 2008

Wake up, wake up, wake up....

Bill Roggio, in the Weekly Standard Blog...

...While it is too early to know exactly how the Mumbai strikes were planned and executed, one thing seems clear: This attack is the most significant terrorist attack since the Sept. 11 attack against the United States.

The terrorists launched a sophisticated, multi-pronged attack into a city of 18 million residents. This requires planning, training, funding, and detailed reconnaissance. The targets were chosen carefully to achieve maximum effect. The terrorists hit hotels, a train station, a movie house, a residential complex, and a hospital--all soft targets. They also were able to plant bombs in taxis as well as capture a police van, which was then used in a drive-by shooting spree.

The assault teams--there is no other way to describe them--coordinated and synchronized their attacks to overwhelm Mumbai security. The terrorists were able to take a significant number of hostages. They knew where to find foreigners and wealthy Indians--at the five star hotels...

Some of the things I'd say this means...

• If you voted for Obama because you wanted to go back to the "Holiday from History" of the 1990's, you just lost your bet.

• In Fourth Generation Warfare, the "front lines" can be anywhere, at any time. You--yes, YOU--can be drafted into the War on Terror at without notice. Your duty is to fight.

• I think that intelligent law-abiding citizens of the civilized nations should be strongly encouraged to carry concealed firearms. My very first week as a blogger, in the dark ages of 2001, I posted this quote, from an article by John Lott in the NY Post:

..Israelis realize that the police and military simply can't be there all the time to protect people when terrorists attack: There are simply too many vulnerable targets. (When the police or military are nearby, terrorists wait until they leave.) And when terrorists strike, their first targets include anyone openly carrying a gun.

What Israel has found helpful in thwarting terrorist attacks is allowing law-abiding, trained citizens to carry concealed handguns. About 10 percent of Jewish adults there now have permits to carry concealed handguns...

• India seems to have been, up to now, fairly muddled and morally unclear about fighting terrorism. I daresay this will concentrate some minds.

• It is my belief that we have not been hit again since 9/11 because George W Bush led America and her few allies in doing exactly what al-Qaeda and other islamic terror groups DID NOT WANT......Bringing freedom and democracy right into the Arab heartland. To Iraq. They are not afraid to die, but they are afraid of that. If Obama is smart--I don't think he is quite this smart--he will announce that, criticisms of the Iraq Campaign notwithstanding, if there's another 9/11 he going to be throwing a dart at a list of terror-supporting Muslim nations, and regime-changing one of them!

Posted by John Weidner at November 28, 2008 5:07 PM
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