Mumbai

[Memmia]

My parents stayed in that hotel last year hock:

[john m roberts]

My brother stayed at the Oberoi a little while back. According to this morning's paper there were only 10 terrorists and only one of those is alive. When was the last time so few men raised so much hell? So far I haven't heard any reasonable explanation for what they did. The attack on the Jewish center says Muslim extremists, but there are so many varieties of those that it's getting to be more of a general category than anything else. Maybe the survivor will talk. I'll bet he's being encouraged to do just that.

[Aryan Steels]

Hello to all,

Yes,there were only ten who ransacked the city of Mumbai. As per reports they entered the city via sea route from Karachi and worked in differnt directions.

The word Muslim terrorism has become a common word. My personal view is that terrorist are neither muslim nor any other but a group of psychologically sick people who does not know what they are doing. They speak and hear the gun language.

As per media reports even in Pakistan the gunmen shot down 23 people in just 24 hours. Now the question is who are they who are killing innocent muslims. I am sure they are only betrayed youths belonging not to any religion but to terror group.

Regards,
Caring
Suhel
India

[Robert Vermaat]

The word Muslim terrorism has become a common word. My personal view is that terrorist are neither muslim nor any other but a group of psychologically sick people who does not know what they are doing. They speak and hear the gun language.

I was very relieved to hear that the city of Mumbai has not reverted to sectarian violence. To the contrary, reports indicate that instead of the different groups in the city do not look upon the Muslims as the group to blame, instead there seems to be a feeling of brotherhood. That's promising. The terrorists failed.

I also read that the death toll of 195, instead of rising as we feared it would, has indeed been lowered to 174. One can look at the apparent 'double body count' as incompetence, I see it as 21 lives not lost to their relatives and friends. The terrorists apparently wanted to kill 3.000 to 5.000 people. Let's thank Heaven they failed there, too.

Eyewitness accounts.

[hoplite14gr]

As for passport seeking it might have some substance.
A Cypriot businessman who carried a British passport was shot by the gunmen as our consul there said.

As for why its happening, I suspect because murder an mayhem are the most effective political tools from the dawn of time, thanks to human stupidity. :evil:

Kind regards

[Primitivus]

Tragically, it was a suicide mission from the start. These murderers value no life, including their own. It is well known that you can create much mayhem if you don't care about surviving the horror yourself.

[Caballo]

I've stayed in both hotels many times on business trips to Mumbai.

The best way to ensure that the terrorists don't win is to carry on as usual (classic and cliched London response, I suppose) - and certainly there is no reason not to visit India or Mumbai. Rather like a restaurant after the health inspector has been, its probably the safest place in the world right now...

(edited by me)

And very much support Suhel's words earlier.

Caballo

[Goffredo]

Caballo wrote
"One Afghani friend of mine had an interesting perspective - what could have happened to these people to make them behave like this...."

The trouble with this apparently profound question is that it seems to beg the claim that had certain things not happended to these individuals they would not have done what they did. From my point of view the perspective of the afghaini friend of Caballo is superficial and only gives rise to infantile theories "what if..." or to sweeping but none-the-less infantile hopes that "if the world becomes a different place... then certain things would not happen". The real trouble with the afghani's perspective is that it is so fashionable amoung westerners. Too bad because the response that was called for was a "And what do mean by THAT? What are you DRIVING AT? Does it mean they were not responsible for their actions? Who then are those responsibile?"

[M. Demetrius]

Folks, we have to be very careful here in public forum. Many of the people posting have strong opinions about motive, and such as that, but this is really not the outlet for that.

Thanks for being cautious, everyone...at least in public. The whole topic is dangerously near the edge of what is allowed according to our rules.