They know they don’t have the numbers. That isn’t what they are about. They don’t want to take over anything in the tradional Nation sense. They just want to disrupt and keep their perceived enemies off balance, confused and scared.
BUT
They still need a little organization. You need the feet on the ground and people who are willing to go all the way knowing full well they will not live another day once their mission begins. To be in that state of mind you need to be fanatical and desperate. Right now North America is not a great breeding ground for that type.
Sure you can have “DEATH TO AMERICA” fanatics but how many are willing to give up their lives especially if they have a nice home or are waiting to catch the latest flick or find out who wins the next American idol. To get 20 whackos you have to Import them into the country without raising suspicion and get them to meet and plan… hard to do logistically.
Also, didn’t they just seek out Americans and British citizens to hold hostage? What kind of piss-poor plan is that? Twenty men looking for someone of X nationality in Mumbai? What the hell are they hoping to prove there?
Iraq is almost over, the US has never been weaker or more humbled, what could they possibly have to prove? I can’t imagine it’s going to do much to drive fear into the hearts of Americans or Brits, really it just makes me feel bad for the individuals that are affected by this. It doesn’t seem like they would reap any of the traditional “benefits” of a terrorist kidnapping.
I agree that they know they can’t take over a country, and that their intent is to disrupt and terrify the populace.
But these are really piss poor efforts. I don’t want this to be a brain storm on potential terrorist activity, but just use your imagination. Look at our most recent national challenges…floods, wild fires, failed levies etc. If you really wanted to, with a team of 20 and a little planning you could really wreak havoc.
The thing is these folks have legitimate beefs. The Palestinians obviously are a people in exile. The mujahideen want the infidels out of the Holy Land. etc etc ad nauseum. Why havn’t these folks hired a good madison avenue firm to represent them and present their case to the world and the american people? That seems like it would be far more effective.
Which to me means their leadership is not very savvy.
It’s suggested here that it was likely a homegrown group with an anti-India agenda. It seems there were 10 targets, 2 hospitals, a railway station a Jewish center besides the hotels. Maybe we’re just hearing more about the targeting of Americans and Brits.
I’m not sure if the OP is just disappointed that the death toll appears to be 100+ rather than in the thousands, but if the goals of the terrorists were:
Radicalise both sides of the Muslim/Hindu and Pakistan/India divide;
Wreck tourism to India at a point when India is becoming one of the most important economies in the world; and
Tie it in with the war in Afghanistan
… then they’ve already succeeded quite well, and will have an impact on the short to medium term. Remember that as well as killing 3000 people, the 9/11 attackers changed air travel, possibly for ever. If these attacks had killed tens of thousands indiscriminately, as suggested by the OP, these things would not have been achieved, and the world would have looked on and sighed.
In 2006 they killed 209 and injured another 700 in Mumbai with 7 bombs detonating on different trains within 11 minutes of each other. And we never heard about it. But this attack is splashed all over the Western news agencies. Because they targeted tourists.
This reminds me of the stereotypical guy who looks at a masterpiece in an art gallery and says: “You call that a painting? My five-year-old could do better!” Major terrorist attacks are one of those things that are much harder than they look like. Consider:
Rigging bombs is not as easy as the TV shows make it seem. Once you have a hijacked propane truck, making it blow up still takes effort. Making it blow up in the right place, at the right time, with maximum destructive capacity, is even tougher. Making it blow up without letting bystanders see what’s going on is harder still.
Avoiding the police takes tremendous planning and effort. Getting 20 heavily-armed men into a city and into the proper locations at exactly the right time requires months of planning and a heavy dose of luck. If a single police officer catches a single terrorist, the whole game is up.
Then there’s the psychological angle. No matter how much you prepare them, you can’t be sure that your 20 terrorists will actually terrorize when push comes to shove. There’s always a chance that one will chicken out at the last minute. To minimize that chance, you have to keep them together in small groups. Sending 20 men to 20 different locations is a recipe for disaster. (From a terrorist perspective, that is. From ours, it looks pretty nice.)
If this happened in New York the West would be going crazy. We’d be collectively looking round for someone, anyone we don’t care who, to punch.
They have essentially closed down the business heart of India and severely damaged business confidence to the extent that international companies are already closing their offices there.
They have exposed the Indian security apparatus as incompetent, killed the senior anti-terrorist commander and by coming ashore from a freighter as bold as brass in front of witnesses they have pointed the finger at Pakistan thereby fanning the flames already smoldering dangerously around two nuclear arsenals in a very unstable part of the world made even more unsafe by the religious insanity gripping both countries.
What exactly would impress you, newcrasher? The attacks may not be very creative or whatever, but who gives a shit? That’s not the point. The point was killing a lot of people and get attention and on that count they were apparently successful. You don’t get points for degree of difficulty when you’re murdering people.
The killers did not target tourists, at least generally. They hit some areas that were tourist destinations but rigt now it looks like about 90 percent of the dead were Indian.