The ongoing situation in Mumbai is horrific. Teams of gunmen attacking simultaneously in ten different locations killing scores of people. In the early twenty-first century, random violence against innocents has become the de rigeur method of political coercion. I really look forward to the day when we've all grown beyond this need for violence.
The thing that struck me most about the Mumbai situation, though, is something I've wondered about for years; why we here in America haven't experienced something similar since 9/11. Al Qaeda was able to get 19 guys onto planes to hijack and crash them. How hard could it be to get 19 more guys into American malls with a few assault rifles? Pretty clearly, such an attack would've sent us straight to a police state. We would have completely freaked out and with the Bush Administration doing everything they could to make us expect such a scenario, there's little doubt we would've kissed more civil liberties goodbye in an attempt to be more secure.
I'm sure the answer is very complex. Yes, our intelligence and security services have likely broken up a decent number of actual threats. Yes, our attacks in Afghanistan did severely hurt Al Qaeda. But I'm sure a great deal of the answer is that it's just not that easy a thing to do. My expectation of such an attack is attributable to the Bush Administration's culture of fear, way overblowing the possibility of such a thing happening.
Either way, I'm very sad for India right now, certainly glad such an attack hasn't happened here and I hope it never happens again, anywhere. But of course, it will, us being humans and all.
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