Weekend Stuff: Tubthumping

"I get knocked down but I get up again...you are never going to keep me down..."

Pardon the alcohol references, but the hit from Chumbawamba represents what Mumbai has done time and again after a series of terrorist hits.  Londoners and New Yorkers get a lot of credit for spunk and grit, but I think Bombayites deserve their own credit.

I was amazed to see on TV the crowds at each of the attack sites cheering on their rescue teams. A few hundred feet away was deadly fire and it was as if they were at a cricket match. The city's stock market was only closed for a day. I spoke to some folks there today and traffic is already back to its usual manic levels.

But the ultimate in bravery must go to the General Manager, Karambir Singh Kang  at the battered Taj hotel. He lost his entire family during the attack, and yet tells his Chairman

"'Sir, we are going to beat this. We are going to build this Taj back into what it was. ... We will not let this event take us down."

Thump those tubs!!!

Comments

[jeff nolan]

Vinnie,
Agree with you on the strength and fortitude of human character in times of crisis. These stories are inevitably what we all look for in disasters, of natural and human causes, because it helps us reconcile the inhumanity with a dose of humanity. Through the strength of others we find strength ourselves.

When we get past the grieving and the outrage, I want to know how the government was apparently so ill equipped to deal with this. India is a country with 1/3 of the population Muslim, huge socio-economic divides, and a location in a very dangerous part of the world. Mumbai is the New York City of India and these attacks were as much on the world as on Mumbai itself. A handful of terrorists exacted a heavy casualty toll over a period of 3 days, and in the year 2008 no less. There are questions that must be answered.

Jeff, i started to write yesterday about time for India to outsource - its intelligence and some ops to the US and Israel among others. Whent I talked to folks in Mumbai today I got the sense there is even more anger towards the Indian politicians than there is towards Pakistan - for not adequately equipping their personnel and counting more on their individual bravery. And the Indian press is already asking the tough questions - tougher than yours.

Having said that tough to question the calls the security folks made. They were counting on ammo running out - they were surprised there was a cache already at the hotels. The multiple targets distracted the command center. The bad guys seemed to know the hotel layout better than they did. Like many armed forces around the world, guerrilla warfare is new to a traditionally hierarchical command structure . Not making excuses but clearly areas they will have to improve.

Finally, the Indian government has shown itself worthless in so many infrastructure areas - the commandos actually did better than the government benchmark would suggest.

[jeff nolan]

btw, this is exactly the kind of questions that need answering.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/article14086308.ece

Jeff, these were the equivalent of local cops - who don't have to deal with armed criminals - guns are not that common in India. So the fact that they cowed down does not surprise me.

The elite commandos - the Black Cats did not arrive till later. Why it took them 9 hours to do so is another valid question

[Vilas Prabhu]

These so called armed police (called 'aaram police' meaning take it easy cops in local language) are highly ill-equipped and demotivated lot. They live in such a squalor with a salary equivalent of 100 USD per month. Despite that many of them (around 14, including 3 officers) did their duty and died in line of duty.

Having said that, we must not lose sight of the main issue, i.e. that of draining the swamp. India can kill these mosquitoes on its own, albeit with great human cost. But India needs help from only superpower of the world to drain the swamp.

Elements of a country in need of IMF bail-out is causing this mayhem. They are playing good-cop bad-cop tactic on all of us. Now is the time to tell them, it aint going to work. Stop IMF bail-out unless they hand-over the perpetrators.

Don't get taken in by their blackmail that if its not us its mullahs. We can deal with mullahs easily, but not with duplicitous sophisticated feudal scumbags, still trying to gain the lost glory of an empire .

[Paul in Miami]

Good I do hope they find and identify ALL the security holes, and deficiencies now. Then, they need to be addressed so that this unspeakable evil can not go there and do this again. Protection is number one now but once this is over, the world needs to take this fight to them (the terrorists, the financiers and trainers) and bring then justice swift merciless and sure. Enough is enough!

[Krishna]

The least Obama administration can do is stop subsidizing the rogue nation (like Bush did) when it comes to it each time hat in hand mis-categorizing it as "an ally on war on terror" and cut cheques for hundreds of millions of $$ or supply F-16s for free or at concessional rates. Not that America has overflowing coffers either. Stifle them of their lifeline (foreign funds that they will never repay) and they won't do it again - to anyone.

[jeff nolan]

Vinnie,
Tactical snipers sat in their nests for the entire 72 hour siege and never got a shot off. They were concerned about civilian casualties to the point they were paralyzed even in the face of a civilian massacre.

There is something really really wrong with how this played out. You say "these are beat cops" but what is the expectation of a law enforcement professional when confronted by violence? Is it to cower why civilians are slaughtered or should it be to act out of training and instinct to uphold the one duty that all law enforcement professionals share, to protect?

On 9/11 the NYPD and NYFD didn't stand outside the WTC and say "gee this looks dangerous". I am obviously not personally connected to India, but I have to say that from my outside and admittedly only informed by what I have read perspective, this does not look like India's finest hour.

Jeff, I had the same observations watching on TV...what we did not see was what went on inside the hotels and the Chabat center...were they also too cautious inside? Best I can tell most of the killings happened before the commandos went in. Why it took them 9 hours to get there (they were all based in capital 3 hours flight away, plan had to be flown in to the capital to pick them up) is a whole different story and ministers and officers are being forced to resign over that.

Krishna, much of the terror funding comes from Middle east sponsors. There is a belief in many Indians the US can "control" Pakistan..what all of us should be worried is about an even weaker Pakistan with its nukes available for the picking

[Tom Foydel]

These are good questions to ask and I wish that this would be the response here in the US. But I no longer understand how we look at the world, as this article points out. I don't know if Chopra's point of view is part of the thinking in India, but he now believes that the US is at fault: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122809544395968075.html

[tmirchan]

Jeff, a harsher critic than you in India

http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14808303

[tmirchan]

Tom, thank God we live in a democracy and let folks like Chopra have their own opinions.