Mumbai - More Thoughts on Terror

A week ago, ten Islamic terrorists embarked from Pakistan and invaded Mumbai, a city of 13 million, where they killed and wounded hundreds. We will know more about their motive in the weeks to come, but it appears there are primarily two possibilities. First, the attack was intended to destabilize improved relations between Pakistan and India and deflect military operations from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border regions. Second, the assault targeted Westerners, especially American and British; Western values; and allied interests. I spent several hours this week reading the facts and commentary from many sources. A few pundits have hit on a realization that seems to be creeping slowly into consciousness among current reports from the dinosaur media. It is significant.

There were millions of targets in Mumbai when the terrorists hit. They could have killed vast numbers of Hindis and Christians - infidels - along with Westerners as they attacked hotels, restaurants, hospitals, transportation centers, a cinema, and a bank. Their careful planning also included one small, literally obscure target, about one half mile from the Taj Mahal Hotel. It was the Chabad House, a Jewish center. There, the terrorist killed six hostages, but not before torturing them. No waterboarding here. In fact, their techniques were so horrifying that surgeons who received the bodies could not bring themselves to describe what they saw.

Regardless of their larger international intentions, it would appear the Mumbai terrorists were willing to commit half their participants to finding and butchering Jews, a group that made up 0.0384% of the city's population. That is insanity, the likes of which we have not seen since the Holocaust. There is no room for kumbaya in this environment. One cannot reason with madness. America and the West - what's left of it - need to understand, accept, and act on that reality today.