We Stand With You India!

[Erich]

who says we cannot fight against billions of Muslims ? maybe you can't but you better be ready if it comes

[Marcel]

if we're going on letting them win the psychological war, I'm sure we will have to.

[Amsel]

Thats what makes this type of terrorism tough to combat non-militarily. They make one big attack and then they don't have to do anything but threaten to attack again for quite some time. They keep everyone worried for awhile with threats. And when the worry dissipates they hit again. This allows the terrorists to operate with minimal costs in material and men. That is why you treat it as a military threat, a national security issue and get very aggressive with them because they are not going to go away if we ignore them.

These are tough times we are entering. Only the strong will survive.

[renrich]

India is pretty sure to react strongly to this atrocity. Their reaction will likely cause Pakistan to shift troops away from the border with Afghanistan. To the extent those Pakistani troops have inhibited the Taliban and AlQaeda in Afghanistan, that help will be gone. Pretty shrewd of the islamic terrorists.

[Amsel]

Originally Posted by renrich

India is pretty sure to react strongly to this atrocity. Their reaction will likely cause Pakistan to shift troops away from the border with Afghanistan. To the extent those Pakistani troops have inhibited the Taliban and AlQaeda in Afghanistan, that help will be gone. Pretty shrewd of the islamic terrorists.

Ah, another angle. That may be worth studying and discussing.

[Amsel]

Kashmir has been a pretty intense place. I bet it is about to blow on the frontier.

[Ferdinand Foch]

I was very sad and angry to hear what happened in Mumbai just last week. I mean, good god. I don't care what the message was for these extremists, or any of their political causes. People who deliberately murder innocent men, women, and children to have their complaints heard around the world do not deserve any respect at all, period.

[renrich]

You are talking about the islamist terrorists. They have no qualms about murdering innocents in the name of some religous beliefs. I still wonder why international Muslim leaders don't unite and condemn the terrorists.

[drgondog]

Originally Posted by fly boy

well if it is pakistan terrorest we can finally invade them like obama say'd we would

That is a dumb idea.

At the moment India and Pakistan are moving into a crossroad and Pakistan is being dragged where they don't want to go - namely a 'real conflict' with India - one with not only overwhelming military and economic assets but also nuclear weapons.

The threat of nuclear exchange gave both deep pause when they came close over Kashnir.

We (US) have three major concerns with Pakistan. One, they are not applying serious capability against the Taliban/Al Qaeda axis in Western Pakistan. Two, they don't apprear to be serious at rooting out the groups allegedly funded and harbored in Pakistan which are actively screwing with India. Last, Khan was responsible for proliferating nuclear weapons technology to Iran, Iraq, Syria and Libya - possibly North Korea. He is being harbored still, despite Mushareef's outing.

The root of our beef with Iraq was a belief in a state sponsored capability to develop WMD which could be placed in third party hands with plausible deniability.

India faces the same problem but Pakistan harbors no illusions regarding India 'searching' for a perpetrator. Pakistan can do great harm to India but go extinct except for the remote tribal regions.

That is our stake in this game - ZERO nuclear exchanges, or dribbles to third parties.

I note that our President elect is now keeping his mouth shut about 'taking zero options from the table' in dealing with Pakistan.

Pakistan is now in a serious political and military crisis with India.

A lot of people forget that India is a Serious warrior tradition - the 7/11 image and Motel 6 image need to be discarded when thinking about India.

[renrich]

Very fine post Bill. One thing to remember about Pakistan is that the military there is sort of a free agent and is not under the strict control of the civilian government. The whole deal over there is a powder keg except they both have nukes. The Indian Premier is almost sure to make a strong move because of public opinion. I don't envy Condy Rice's job right now. Bet she can't wait to get back to Stanford. Don't think for a minute this episode is not timed out to coincide with our political situation.

[krieghund]

Once again we are faced with the specter of evil….and so many innocents were killed. What to do???

A Saudi I work with asked “Why do they always say ISLAMIC TERRORISTS and not Christian terrorists?”

My answer was simple, the terrorists quote chapter and verse from the Koran their justifications for their actions…..find for me in the New Testament justifications for Christians to use violence to solve their issues. He has yet to get back to me…pretty sneaky way to get him to read the Gospels.

You all need to read the Koran so we can have a common basis for discussion…..any Koran believing person is required to follow it tenets….oops too bad for the Islamic apologists!!

Somali pirates fall into this arena as well…the Islamic clergy ask they release the Saudi oil tanker cause we is all muslims……the answer was…..nah!!! want money.

We encountered this problem before in our history…how did we deal with it and do the Barbary pirates pose any threat today??? Nope!!!

The issues concerning Israel/Palestine are involved here but did not start in 1948..about 3000 years earlier, something about who really has the birthrite..the son born of the wife or the son born of the concubine? That particular piece of real estate has changed has more times than you can count and the Hebrews have always come back….took a bit longer this time cause the Romans were more efficient at population dispersal.

To sum it up…if you throw a frog into boiling water he’ll jump out, but if you put him in then turn up the heat you’ll cook him…..this is the plan. By the way how’s the water???

Loose the hounds!!!!

[Amsel]

You know that around 70% of the terrorist acts committed by Islamic terrorists are done in their own countries. Maybe even more then that. Just ask the Lebanese and Egyptian Christians. They have been under intense terrorist attack for years.

How can one claim that it is not a religious war when the reward for one drop of a martyrs blood will give seventeen members of his family a ticket to paradise. These attacks on Christians in the middle east are not decried by the muslim population but are celebrated.

As we have seen in the last 30 years, the sickness is spreading. Will our urban centers' skyline oneday be silhouetted by minarets.

[BombTaxi]

Originally Posted by Amsel

You know that around 70% of the terrorist acts committed by Islamic terrorists are done in their own countries. Maybe even more then that. Just ask the Lebanese and Egyptian Christians. They have been under intense terrorist attack for years.

How can one claim that it is not a religious war when the reward for one drop of a martyrs blood will give seventeen members of his family a ticket to paradise. These attacks on Christians in the middle east are not decried by the muslim population but are celebrated.

As we have seen in the last 30 years, the sickness is spreading. Will our urban centers' skyline oneday be silhouetted by minarets.

Well, the skylines of of the UK's urban centres are already silhouetted by minarets and we're doing fine mate Islam as practiced by the majority of it's adherents is no more a sickness that any other religion. Of course, I don't expect you to believe that, but you really should come to a country with a large Muslim population and see what it's like. Speaking as someone who visits family in the US quite often, you won't find much difference.

[Amsel]

Originally Posted by BombTaxi

Well, the skylines of of the UK's urban centres are already silhouetted by minarets and we're doing fine mate Islam as practiced by the majority of it's adherents is no more a sickness that any other religion. Of course, I don't expect you to believe that, but you really should come to a country with a large Muslim population and see what it's like. Speaking as someone who visits family in the US quite often, you won't find much difference.

It will not be fine if the status quo continues. That thinking is dillusional at best.

[Amsel]

Arguably the most successful act of revolutionary terror was the June 1914 assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand in Sarajevo.

Believing his mission to murder the heir to the Austrian throne had failed, Gavrilo Princip suddenly found himself standing a few feet away from the royal car. He fired twice, mortally wounding the archduke and his wife.

Tactically, that act of terror eliminated the reformist Ferdinand, who meant to address the grievances of his Slav subjects by granting them greater autonomy and equality with Austrians and Hungarians inside the empire.

Strategically, the assassination succeeded beyond the wildest dreams of its Black Hand plotters.

Hard-liners in Austria demanded an ultimatum to Serbia. When her demands were not met in full, Vienna declared war. Czar Nicholas mobilized in support of Russia’s little Slav brothers. The Kaiser ordered mobilization. When the French refused to declare neutrality, Germany declared war. In hours, the British Cabinet had reversed itself to back war with Germany on behalf of Belgium and France.

Princip had lit the fuse that set off in six weeks the greatest war in history. While Serbia suffered per capita losses as great as any other nation, she ended the Great War as the lead nation in a Kingdom of the South Slavs embracing Slovenes, Croats, Bosnians, Albanians, Montenegrins, Macedonians and Hungarians. The Habsburg Empire at which Princip had struck had vanished.

Last week’s Mumbai massacre seems a similar triumph of terror.

Tactically, by sending a platoon of suicide warriors into India’s financial capital, terrorizing a train station, two five-star hotels and a Jewish center, and killing nearly 200 in over 60 hours, the plotters assured themselves of round-the-clock worldwide television coverage.

In so riveting the world’s attention for four days, this terrorist atrocity was a success.

And by using Pakistanis to perpetrate the massacres and Karachi as port of embarkation, the plotters focused India’s rage exactly where they want it, against Pakistan. By this slaughter in India’s commercial capital, the Islamists have destroyed the detente Pakistan was seeking with India and pushed both toward war. Out to murder moderation and stoke militancy, the terrorists succeeded.

Pat Buchanan