Terrorist Attacks
What Has Mumbai Taught You About Terrorists?
Four days have gone by since terrorists landed a carefully planned attack on the city of Mumbai, India. Even though there had been warnings of a possible terrorist attack on Mumbai, police and other officials may not have been able to do anything significant to stop the attack from happening. By striking Mumbai by sea, these terrorists would have made it through any of the major checkpoints that might have been placed to stop them along the way.
What might have been done to stop a terrorist attack like this one?
Initially some might argue that nothing could be done to stop an unpredictable danger such as this terrorist attack, but that is not the situation Mumbai had been subjected to. CNN reports that the Taj Mahal hotel had prior warning of possible terrorist attack. If this is true, and this danger had been predicted, then something could have been done to deter these terrorists or even stop the attack from happening at all. But - that is the issue at hand.
The incident at Mumbai has shown me that terrorists will brazenly and openly attack major cities. They will waltz in, with the entire world watching, and force their way into places where we might have previously felt safe. The terrorist attacks in Mumbai could have been stopped by an increased military, police, or other security presence throughout the city and on its borders including Harbor Bay. Again I will say - that is the issue at hand.
What I’ve learned from Mumbai is that even with prior warning, unless we’re ready to implement a police-state, there is not much that can be done to stop the attack from actually happening. With prior warning, the best we can do is respond more quickly to the attacks. Even then everything we do is reactive. Is that the best we can do? Well, no… we could introduce legislation that would better protect ourselves so that these terrorists are never allowed to become a threat to our cities. Yet again - that is the issue at hand.
The only way to really be certain that threats like this are never allowed to enter our cities is to take away the freedoms we have fought so long to keep. We can stop terrorists at our borders by submitting ourselves to unconstitutional searches. We can be certain terrorists are unable to cross our borders into our cities by posting a guard that will say “No!” when told to “Mind their own business” as the fishermen of Mumbai had been told to do.
What Mumbai has taught me is that terrorists will continue to walk right into our homes for as long as we let them. More importantly, it has shown me how close I am to losing many of the freedoms I have taken for granted. The only way Mumbai could have been prevented completely is to have submitted its citizens to searches without probably cause and by posting military or police throughout the city as a deterrance.
This is what I’ve learned from Mumbai and I will be watching any upcoming legislation very closely to see how my freedoms have been affected.
What did you learn from Mumbai?