After 60 hours, the city of Mumbai can finally breathe and reflect on the carnage left by 10 Muslim terrorists based in Pakistan. The terrorists purportedly smiled as they sprayed bullets on guests at the Taj Mahal Hotel, a favorite luxury hotel of Americans and Britons when in Mumbai, India’s financial headquarters. reports are also surfacing that the goal was to kill 5,000 people through explosives, but the century old hotel proved to be stronger than the terrorists had accounted for in their year long plot to kill. One lone baby-faced terrorist survived the fight with Indian commandos and is in custody, reportedly in the greatest of ironies, begging for his life.
I am not sure words ever can describe this type of horror, but beyond the carnage of what was a holiday week in the United States, lies the harrowing angst that the violence will spawn a war between two already tense neighbors. Relations between Pakistan and India were already tense due to the nuclear race between the countries and the border clashes in Kashmir. The Indian press has already declared war, but leaders around the world and in Pakistan are hoping that cooler heads will prevail and that further violence can be avoided.
Almost lost in the news this week was the revelation that New York City and federal officials have heightened security surrounding plausible evidence that Al Qaeda is planning attacks on the cities rail lines, perhaps at Penn or Grand Central Stations during the holidays.
