Today’s Terror in Bombay and Tomorrow’s Iranian Bomb
All you have to connect are two dots to see that today’s terrorist carnage in Bombay is yet another wakeup call about the 100,000-fold danger of letting Iran get the nuclear bomb — let alone start turning out nuclear weapons on an industrial scale.
We now wait to learn what language(s) are spoken by the terrorists attacking Bombay; where they were trained, armed, and who dispatched them. But the horror of seeing the landmark Taj Mahal burn, of the grenades and gunfire, of counting the dead, of seeing India so bloodied at her main international crossroads — this is an attack not only on India, but on all civilized states. The demands for passports, and winnowing out of American and British citizens is a message that in particular ought to concentrate the minds of President Bush, President-elect Obama, and the fools in America’s “intelligence” community who produced last year’s National Intelligence Estimate implying there is no real urgency to stop Iran.
Diplomatic talks with the Iranians have been going on for years, courtesy of the feckless European Union. The only real squeeze has come from the U.S. Treasury, which, as noted on Pajamas by Matthias Kuntzel, faces such obstacles as gross disregard by many of our erstwhile allies.
Short of a military strike — which may ultimately and in the not-so-distant future be the only way – an idea for leverage on Iran, which President-elect Obama has endorsed, is to try pressure Iran’s gasoline suppliers into cutting off the sales to the mullahs. Here’s an article by one of my FDD colleagues, Orde Kittrie, on that approach. Here’s a piece from The Chicago Tribune, along similar lines. The clock is ticking.
Today, around family dinner tables, over turkey, in the comfort of a free country which has not suffered a major terrorist attack in more than seven years, we have so much to give thanks for. A happy Thanksgiving to all. Our hearts go out to the people of India.
As an Indian, who is currently living in Bombay, I really have to bring caution to this instant connection to Iran. There is no proff of any such connection, on the contrary there is a lot of accusations flying around connecting these terrorists to various regions, including India itself. Yes this is an attack on civilized states and should be severly condemned by all and serious action needs to be taken but I don’t think an attack on Iran is going to solve any of these problems. It might just be the wrong move and will only serve to perpetuate more such attacks. Evenif there are links to Iran such a move will only leave innocent people such as you and me open to more attacks.
Sadly, I don’t know if western civilization wants to recognize the fence upon which we sit.
Again, the innocent body counts accumulate, our elites in elected office commit themselves to silly causes, manufactured debates, literally while Rome is burning.
Lord help us.
Ambika,
Claudia Rosett did not mean that Iran was involved in this specific attack, but that once Iran is churning out nukes it would not be difficult to see one put in the hands of the kind of people who carried out this attack. Suppose that instead of coming ashore from MV Alpha the terrorists had simply sailed into the harbor and blew up a nuke hidden in the ship?
Furthermore once Iran gets nukes it will be much harder to get other states to act to counter Iranian support of terrorism when Iran can threaten a nuclear strike if anyone tries to curb its support.
Formercorpsman I could not say it any better. Our government has no clue how to fix the financial mess, what I see coming is that profits will be penalized and losses will be rewarded. Iran, Pakistan, and India with nukes that is scary. Why can’t we send in Special Forces or Marines to help India get Mumbai under control? Pull a small amount of resources out of Iraq?
India is a big country with plenty of resources to defend itself – they don’t need our soldiers in their country. In case you don’t know, they’ve had a problem with islamic (and other) terrorists for a while. Yeah, we should help with intel and maybe training, but as with so many other countries, it’s their responsibility, not ours. Why is it that the US has to risk it’s soldiers lives and come up with the money to fight everyone else’s battles for them? India can and should carry it’s own weight.
How to Beat The Indian Politician
Section 49-O of the Constitution:
(A Repetition worth a read)
Did you know that there is a system in our Constitution, as per the 1969 Act, in Section “49-O” that a person can go to the polling booth, confirm his identity, get his finger marked and convey to the presiding election officer that he doesn’t want to vote anyone!
Yes such a feature is available, but obviously our seemingly notorious leaders have never disclosed it. This is called “49-O”.
Why should you go and say “I VOTE FOR NOBODY”… because, in a ward, if a candidate wins, say by 123 votes, and that particular ward has received “49-O” votes more than 123, then that polling will be cancelled and will have to be re-polled. Not only that, but the candidature of the contestants will be removed and they cannot contest the re-polling, since people had already expressed their decision on them. This would bring fear into parties and hence look for genuine candidates for their parties for election. This would change the way of our whole political system… it is seemingly surprising why the Election Commission has not revealed such a feature to the public….
Please spread this news to as many as you know… Seems to be a wonderful weapon against corrupt parties in India… show your power, expressing your desire not to vote for anybody, is even more powerful than voting… so don’t miss your chance. So either vote, or vote not to vote (vote 49-O) and pass this info on…
“Please forward this mail to as many as possible, so that we, the people of India , can really use this power to save our nation”. Use your voting right for a better INDIA
Pakistan already is what we feared a nuclear Iran would be – a nuclear-armed rogue state which supports terrorism while using its nuclear weapons to deter retaliation. The only effective difference between Pakistan today and a nuclear Iran tomorrow is that Pakistan enjoys more effective plausible deniability.
Michael,
I do realize that Ms Rosett didnt mean any specific connection, but that is exactly what i am trying to caution against. Several other comments on this blog as well are fearful of Iran aquiring the nuke, as I would be. But these are seperate issues and by confusing everything, throw in the larger ‘war on terror’ one has a jumbled pot of issues and leaders, who seem to be inept to begin with, are unable to deal with each issue simply because they cannot seperate them.
@thegr8_1
just want to ask you one thing….How in God’s name can you equate India with Iraq and Pakistan?I mean just give me a few points that are common . JUST A FEW. and I would be more than satisfied.HAVE YOU BEEN TO ANY OF THE THREE COUNTRIES???And what ‘resources ‘ are you talking about?A country that’s knee deep in debt ,the U. S OF A???the BIGGEST DEBTOR in the world will ‘pull out resources????That has to be a joke.Check the IMF and world bank records!!didnt know that did you?as for sending special forces and marines ….NO THANK YOU!!India has been ,IS and WILL be capable of handling its own affairs .WE don’t need outside help.Did you see us requesting for your forces???snap out of the delusion . As for pulling forces out of Iraq…what a joke!SORT OUT IRAQ FIRST!THE COUNTRY THAT YOU ATTACKED VERY CONVENIENTLY …AND THEN THINK ABOUT PULLING TROOPS.your whole post smacks of arrogance,a holier than thou air and exposes you as the proverbial fence sitter.As for the nukes…well found them in Iraq did you?:)….so am sure you think of finding them here along the same lines…WMD’s!! what a load of crap!!