Here’s more on the Indian police who couldn’t shoot straight—or at all.
Once you read it, you will no longer be surprised that the police were ineffective during the Mumbai attacks. But you might be even more enraged about it than before.
Here’s a sample:
Obviously [India] has needed a much better-educated, better-paid, better-trained national anti-terrorist police unit for years, but none has been established. Thus the forces available to fight the terrorists in Mumbai were pathetically inadequate in quantity, quality or both.
That was clearly true of Maharashtra’s state anti-terrorism squad, which is headquartered less than 10 minutes from the sites of the attacks but which had a total of 35 officers — and fewer than 15 on duty. This, to protect a state population of 96 million, 18 million in Mumbai alone. The squad’s commander, Hemant Karkare — who was killed early in the attacks — was a 54-year-old investigator, not a fighter even at the level of an ordinary infantryman.
By contrast, India’s National Security Guards, formed in 1985, are well trained. But the guards are a military-style commando assault force, with no real experience in civilian hostage rescue, even though that is one of their official missions. With 7,500 trained men, they could have responded adequately in a military way, if only someone had managed to call enough of them in quickly.
It’s not that India was taken by surprise by terrorism. Unlike the US pre-9/11, they’ve had many fatal terrorist attacks on their soil. The methods at Mumbai were somewhat different, it’s true. But there’s really no excuse for not having anticipated something of the sort and having some rudimentary preparation and training to deal with it.
The author of the piece, Edward N. Luttwak, ends by saying that India will now remedy the situation. I sincerely hope he’s correct.
Previously a lifelong Democrat, born in New York and living in New England, surrounded by liberals on all sides, I've found myself slowly but surely 
December 6th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
I don’t suppose you noticed that Luttwak contradicted the experts you approved in the other thread, in his first sentence citing “hostage rescue teams” in other cities that would handle a massacre situation better than Mumbai. (I suppose it would be hard to be worse than Mumbai.)
Good thing we have experts, huh?
December 7th, 2008 at 12:19 am
By the time an HRT gets there, it’s too late. The perps were mowing people down as they walked, and they were going to kill any hostage they took. From the first round they fired, the goal should have been to kill them fast, out in the open. Gunshot, ramming with a garbage truck, Molotov cocktail, makes no difference. Take them down! This is no longer a “policing society” situation; this is a “protecting society from a warlike attack” situation.
And we should (as Bobbitt phrases it) stockpile laws to deal with the situation, including immunity for the cops who fire back in that situation.
December 7th, 2008 at 12:38 am
Perhaps India’s best solution would be the formation (and assistance in arming) of an Indian version of the NRA…
December 7th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
A country with its roots set in Ghandian pacifism is not going to be able to rise up against islamofascist violence anytime soon. The Indian military is, like ours, a different agent, directed against external forces. Maybe that explains the rising anger at Pakistan, but to what purpose? Will Pakistan become India’s Iraq?
December 10th, 2008 at 12:05 am
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article5311241.ece
Google that…