Dealing with Terrorism 101 the message from Mumbai

They’ve been pouring onto the streets of Mumbai by the tens of thousands, hundreds of average citizens coming out of their homes and shops to cheer on Mumbai’s courageous commandos. “They’re leaping for joy!” said a television reporter from their midst. It’s day three of the Mumbai attacks and the most recent updating at the time of this writing is that the bodies of five Israeli hostages seized by Islamic militants have been recovered from a Jewish centre in the city. This sad news came from Eli Belotsercovsky, deputy chief of mission at the Israeli embassy in New Delhi. There are no Jane Fondas and Cindy Sheehans in Mumbai, just average citizens leaping for joy as they watch their commandos take back control.

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In this textbook version of “How to Deal With Terrorists 101”, the New York Times has already found a way to turn the story around. “Indian television shows a near riot on the streets in front of Nariman House, as celebrating crowds seem to believe that it’s all over. They are cheering trucks with armed men in camouflage.” (Update 9:04 a.m. thelede.blogs, nytimes.com, Nov. 28, 2008). “But a Times correspondent, a Times correspondent, adds that the police have come out to try to calm the crowds down, saying that they still need to clear more floors of the Jewish community center.” In an earlier NY Times update: “Nearly a full 48 hours after the siege that shook Mumbai began, the city is still racked by gunfire, with Indian Army troops continuing to battle the attackers and presumably trying to free hostages. There is no “presumably” about it. Trying to free the hostages is what the Indian Army is valiantly doing. And living proof of that is the many hostages they have already freed. Indeed, snipers providing covering fire as the Special Forces soldiers slid down ropes onto the roof of the headquarters of the ultra-orthodox Jewish outreach group Chabad Lubavitch was how the commandos began to take control. In front of wildly cheering crowds, hostages, trapped guests and corpses were brought out of the Oberoi Trident, according to news sources. Authorities say 400 people have been brought out of the Taj Mahal Palace hotel and what’s more, all militants have been chased off or cleared from the building. First responders have paid dearly, as among those killed in the coordinated terrorist strikes on the Indian coastal city, are 14 police officers, one national guard and six foreign nationals. In what some media describe as “the worst international terrorist attack since 9/11”, the wave of terror began after groups of terrorists, armed to the teeth with automatic weapons and grenades, entered the city by boat and quickly fanned out to several pre-selected sites. Firing indiscriminately and tossing grenades, they burst into two hotels, a hospital and a railway station as well as a café known to be a popular gathering place for foreign tourists. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the attacks were well-planned and probably had “external linkages”. “It is evident that the group that carried (out) these attacks, based outside the country, had come with single-minded determination to create havoc in the commercial capital of the country,” he said. In the immediate wake of the attacks, a Pakistani merchant vessel “laden with explosives” was apprehended off the coast of India. A group calling itself the “Deccan Mujahideen” has claimed responsibility attacks, according to the Press Trust of India. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Singh does not seem willing to negotiate with terrorists without any pre-conditions. “We hear you and the people that knocked down these buildings will hear you,” President George Bush cried out from the rubble of the World Trade Center. Unfortunately those words were soon to be drowned out by America haters and the anti-war crowd, aided and abetted by a negligent mainstream media. In the tragedy going on in India, the smiling face of the young hate-filled terrorist fanatic is being transcended by a message of hope. The people of India get it. They don’t turn on their nation but on the terrorists who claimed 143—and still counting--innocent civilian lives.