The hideous terrorist killings in Mumbai should leave us all deeply saddened and concerned. Our hearts go out to the people of India in this time of sorrow and mourning. May each threatened nation find a path to stamp out the terrorists that seek to enter its borders and create mayhem.
This year I have made many more friends from India, and have had the privilege of communicating with some visionary leaders in India’s ecosystem of innovation and technology transfer. I have come to greatly admire that nation and the spirit of so many of its aspiring people. They have some of the world’s finest scholars, finest humanitarians, and finest artists. There is such a desire for that nation to life itself and its people. This devastation by its enemies — the enemies of all who love freedom — pains me terribly. May those fiends be captured and brought to justice, and may we find ways to prevent such atrocities in the future.
Are any of your directly affected by this, or do you have loved ones in Mumbai or the area?
One of my husband’s colleagues is from Mumbai, and he has other colleagues from India as well.
This has been a horrible story to watch and track. Our hearts go out to the people of Mumbai and elsewhere who are affected by this, also for those affected from other countries.
A local rabbi in Utah talked about this on KSL…he knew someone personally. The story is heartbreaking…two parents killed, their two-year survived, and is now left an orphan.
As tragic as this massacre is, why are the lives of those massacred by the US military in Afghanistani weddings for example, not mourned as equally tragically in the US media? When our military blow 40 or 50 or 60 women and children to bits, where is the outcry? Are not Afghanistan peasants lives as important as Jewish rabbi’s lives in our judeo-christian culture?
I was shocked by the news as well. Terrorism has reached a new benchmark of evil. These are truly times when we need to turn our hearts to God in faith and show the world that we are God’s chosen servants because we have chosen God’s way…the way of faith, hope, and love. I hope we have the courage to be the bearers of peace and justice in these unsettling times, for a true servant of God grows more righteous in the face of adversity.
The lives of people in Afghanistan are as precious as those in India in or anywhere else. Their deaths, as far as we can tell, were a terrible tragedy from a horrific mistake. See the story from the UK TimesOnline. The US military actively strives to avoid civilian fatalities, while terrorists seek to maximize the deaths of innocent. Accountability is needed in either case, but there is a world of difference between an accidental death and deliberate murder.
US forces, pained with the terror of their mistake, will probably spend countless hours analyzing the tragedy and improving tactics to reduce the risk of such a tragedy again. Terrorists, gloating in the terror they have caused, will spend countless hours studying Mumbai and coming up with ways to make it even more horrific next time.
If you think the two tragedies are equivalent in terms of the outrage we should have against the perpetrators, I think you may be missing some subtle nuances here. But both should have been prevented, and both deserve our attention and voluntary charitable efforts to relieve and help.
Jeff, I wouldn’t call the differences ‘subtle nuances’, but rather “major differences.”
Is that the one where the “wedding party” was shooting AK-47’s in the air.
The frightening part of this episode is how the terrorists created several “swat team” type hostage episodes that overwelmed local police forces. This included a direct assualt on the leaders of the Mumbai anti-terrorism forces. It was a very well planned attack.
Hi Jeff;
I accidentally found your blog and it’s really great! I’m LDS and I now live in Canada but my father in law has been the head mechanical engineer at Kimberly-Clark in Ogden Utah for as long as it has been open. So there are 2 things we have in common. I have many international friends as well, I love to learn about different religions and cultures, and I guess this was a lesser version of India’s 911. I lived in Utah for 20 years…its a very odd culture even for a very strict Mormon. Good experience though and good place to raise the kids. I will visit you often. I think you and I think a lot alike.
Blessings,
Sheila/Bluebirdy
No Bookslinger, that would be the one where women and children were marching up a hillside, marching with the bride when they were attacked by US forces and 90 some people were killed. Or would it be the other one where we killed 47 people. Incredibly, it seems we bomb a wedding party every month or so. In the words of Ghandi, “What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless,
whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism
or the holy name of liberty and democracy?”
An Indian neighbor of mine had a brother-in-law who escaped from the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. He and some fellow colleagues were a couple of floors down from where the terrorists were stationed. They decided to try to escape about 4 am in the morning. While they were running down the stairs, the terrorists were lobbing grenades and shooting. Because of the fire, etc. the stairway collapsed behind him – killing his comrades. Amazingly, as he was coming down the stairs, he managed to grab a western woman’s arm and helped her escape with him.
Unfortunately, however, an extended relative of my neighbor’s husband did perish in the attacks. My neighbor said that she stayed up all night watching the news via internet and talked with family and cried. She, being a practicing Muslim, condemns these ferocious acts of terrorism. It’s really terrible, no matter where it happens in the world.