The chaos in India's commercial capital of Mumbai continues, and although reports say police are making progress against the terrorists, it's not over after three days of violence. Reports of casualties fluctuate as more are discovered. And the looming question on the minds of people across the globe is who bears responsibility for this carnage. The answer to that question could create an entirely new area of instability that President-Elect Obama's soon to be unveiled national security team may have to deal with as a first priority.
Maybe it should come as no surprise that US media has been speculating throughout this horror that the attacks were somehow linked to al-Qaeda. After all, it's the terrorist group we're most familiar with. Plus, it's easy for an analyst sitting in a New York studio to take the fact of the complexity of the attacks and spin that into a series of questions about al-Qaeda's involvement. It's certainly true that militant groups inside India have never pulled off the series of coordinated attacks on hotels, the main railway station, and a Jewish center before. Yet does this mean the well equipped and armed young men who did this were acting on orders of Osama bin Laden?
Right now, the correct answer is nobody knows. The Indian government has begun pointing the finger of blame at Pakistan. Media reports have some of the gunmen arriving on a ship from Karachi. If this is true, or if most Indians believe it is, a new and potentially dangerous round of tensions between these two countries could follow. There have been six decades of conflict between India and Pakistan over the disputed territory of Kashmir.
One thing is for sure. No matter where these gun men come from or what cause they espouse, they were extremely well organized and well trained. That they held Americans and Britons hostage, and attacked a Jewish community center must make intelligence agencies in Washington, London, and Tel Aviv more than a little nervous. However, if there's one lesson to be learned by media from this conflict that isn't over yet, it is this.
Don't oversimplify.
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2 comments:
Ironically, when I first learned of the turmoil in Mumbai, I didn't even know where it was. Now I do - INDIA. The sad thing about ALL of these sudden issues, is that I think that it is a deliberate attempt to make our new President's job a bit more hectic. I can't point the finger at who is responsible, but I can say that I will keep President Barack Obama in my prayers that he will consult with the Higher Power before making any hasty decisions concern World Issues.
Pudgie
I,too, have been waiting for enough information to start sorting out what has and is happening in Mumbai. I have listened and read Arundhati Roy on India (nonfiction work,some is online;she published in the Guardian.co.uk which is online). Her most recent article was on separatists and Kashmir, if I remember correctly. In your other venue, you made a point of media cutting bureaus "overseas". Wise point. I am wondering why a Jewish Center was attacked. (I'm an atheist Jew who grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family from E. Europe, not Hassidim.) New Yorkers have seen Lubovitch Hassidim outreach vans on the street, looking for Jews who have stopped being observant and to urge their return to religious tradition, prayer and study.
It was said that the gunmen were looking for British and Americans. When I was in college, I hated following what was going on in the news. Now, a senior citizen, I realize that while all politics is local in one sense, our government's policies are contributing to the mess the world is in. So, I have to "pay attention". It is up to all of us to let our representatives know what we want in re government policies. First we have to know what's going on. (And so do the government representatives we have elected. I was sure the Congress was acting in haste with the bail out. They were/they did.) Photos/video go global very quickly, but not the whole story. There are people who know background, who have been reliable in the past. We'll collect information from many sources, in effort to unravel this. I will not rush to conclusions based on the mainstream media "facts" since they are often inaccurate, to be revised later....The map changes,too. When I went to school, Mumbai was Bombay, sigh.
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