Mumbai is a lesson well learned in Russian.

Reading this article: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/12/defending_the_shores.html, I see that David Ignatius states:

“Most U.S. police departments aren’t well prepared to deal with such “active shooters,” as they’re called. Police are trained to cordon off an area that’s under attack and then call in a paramilitary SWAT team to root out the gunmen.”

That used to be true, but in the post-Columbine era– it’s no longer the case. Police officers are now trained to deal with active shooters, so as to reduce loss of life in situations similar to Columbine. At the police department I worked for, we trained entering schools and dealing with hostage situations in which there was no time to wait for SWAT. It was a call that needed to be made by individual officers arriving at the scene: To enter or not to enter….

At Columbine High School, the police officers did what they were trained to do. They sealed off the area around the school so as to prevent people from entering or leaving. All the while Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were mowing down fellow students venting a rage forged in nihilistic lifestyles.

This was not morally acceptable–and no government agency sponsored to protect the people could go on without changing the way it dealt with these situations.

Police patrol officers are also routinely trained to use and armed with assault-style weapons, such as the M-4 carbine. Response time would not have been an issue. It took Indian commandos 10 hours to respond to the Mumbai attacks. It seems that the fact that the attacks took place at multiple places had something to do with this.

Attacks on multiple places inside a US city would indeed cause serious problems inside the US. However, I believe that Indian law enforcement is probably Federal in nature and may not have the local assets needed to deal with multiple events. Of course, Mumbai is the largest city in India, so Federal assets should have been numerous.

Imagining this scenario on US soil, the terrorists would immediately be confronted by local law enforcement; city police. As soon as the “shots fired” call went out, neighboring agencies, city, county and state would immediately respond. Also, the FBI, in it’s role as support liaison for local law enforcement, would dispatch as many assets as possible from its local office, probably from the nearest federal building such as the post office if it were large enough. Once the scope of the attack became apparent, more FBI assets would be called for, such as negotiators and FBI SWAT. State police SWAT would also respond.

Were it not so trite, the attacks in Mumbai would draw comparisons in the media to the video game, Rainbow Six. In the game, players must deal with terrorist organizations taking hostages in labyrinthine structures that take large amounts of time to clear.

In reality, the Russians dealt with similar problems, such as the Moscow Theatre hostage crisis, and the Beslan School hostage crisis. In the Beslan situation, 334 hostages were killed by Chechen separatists, including 186 children. In Moscow, the Russians deployed a narcotic gas, which incapacitated the Chechen rebels, after which they were summarily executed by assaulting Spetznaz. Employed in both cases  were Russian special ops units, Vympel and Alfa. As with most operations conducted by Russia, there are many questions surrounding both situations. In both cases the terrorists affixed bombs at several points inside the buildings as well as to themselves. In both situations, over 800 hostages were taken. The use of the narcotic gas in Moscow drew complaints after the Russian military refused to release the components of the chemical weapon to doctors and paramedics. Some of the hostages dies as a result, however several hundred fewer than at the Beslan site. It appears for all of the mistakes made, that the Russians were on the right track; there’s few other ways to defeat terrorists who’ve made the building they’re in and themselves into bombs.

The NSA had warned India of possible attacks in Mumbai, originating from the sea. NSA programs had intercepted phone calls where operatives spoke of the plans. But to be defensive is to die. It’s doubtful, even when given information as specific as that which the NSA provided, that security forces could have stopped this. Aside form posting commandos at the doors for months on end that is–and even then, the terrorists could just attack someplace less guarded. The terrorists must be attacked where they train, and their sources of money and aid–destroyed.

The new Pakistani government must help the world in destroying militants in the Kashmir region, or else the world may do it without any Pakistani help at all.

Applaud Obama where it’s due…but Russia looms.

Let’s be happy about recent appointments by Obama. He’s decided to keep Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense. Gates did an outstanding job in a position that garners no sympathy and is always a prime target for wacky far-lefters. Sweeping out the rubble that Rumsfeld left on the Iraqi battlefield, Gates calmly went about turning a disaster into a clear victory. He has bi-partisan support, too.

Obama also decided to bring on retired Gen. James Jones as a national security advisor. It was Gates, acting as NATO supreme commander, who appointed Gen. David Patraeus to lead the surge effort in Iraq. Quite honestly, I’m shocked. Instead of appointing hacks and demogogues to these important and decidedly un-leftist positions, Obama brought in men proven in battle. Jones represents the first military man to serve as top security advisor since Colin Powell served 20 years ago under Reagan.

Bush’s appointment of Rumsfeld is probably the single biggest reason that the Democrats now hold power. He arrogance is legendary. No military man of any regard was immune from Rumsfeld’s attempts to put powerful men in uniform, “in their place.” Instead of listening to men who knew and had experience, such as Gen Shinseki, Rumsfeld blazed ahead in a world of his own making–and killed our soldiers and national morale in doing so.

Russia, after brokering some new deals with Venezuelan autocrat Hugo Chavez, sent a flotilla of warships to the coast of Venezuela. Russian President Medvedev has been visiting the country after Russia sold Venezuela over $4 Billion in arms. Chavez is attempting to have constitutional ammendments made that will ensure he remains president for life. However, his popularity is waning. His people are starving while he makes riduiculous statements, wastes money on weapons he’ll never use (if he loves his life and his county’s infrastructure) and cosy’s up to evil geniuses Medvedev and Putin.

It’s gonna be an interesting eight years…

Slowly and surely, Russia is attempting to undermine the United States. They’ll continue for the next eight years, or more.

The New Russian Threat

We should express little surprise at the recent Russian invasion of Georgia, Russia’s former satellite territory. Over the past year, Putin smelled disapproval of America, that popular fragrance of today. But he has miscalcualted. When other nations feel threatened, America’s image can only improve.

 The recent invasion, make no mistake about it, has been long in the planning by the Russian military.

No one should be surprised, and people who say that America and the West are going to get what they deserve ought to be careful about what they wish for. They should remember that Russia is a country, living under a carapace of its own dried blood, and drunk not only with vodka–but its own sorrow. Now, she claws her way along, trying to reclaim a glory that she never really had. Yes, she had pomp and royalty in the time of the Czars, but only enough to remind the demos that they had little, and that they were nothing. Thus was the engine of revolution fuelled, and even now, almost 100 years later, fuels the conflict between the West and the Russian mind.

The president of Georgia writes here, about what has happened to his country and what it means to the West. He has stated that his country has divorced themselves from the old ways, that is, corruption, totalinarianism, despotism and ultimately despair. His country hosts a government elected by the people, and which was fully prepared to enter NATO. This is what Russia could not accept. This is the true Russia which has lie dormant for decades, waiting for the precise moment to rise again.

All the pieces to the puzzle are there. Russia’s stance in the Iraq War, using its position on the UN Security Council to twist France’s arm in the voting process, its support of the Iranian nuclear program even to the point of building the reactors, its supplying of weapons to Syria, and other nations clearly in opposition to international peace. Then, her voting, showing that the power to do wrong is not always in the hands of a nations government, but many times resides in the hands of the people. The people elected thugs.

I cannot say, now, how far this Russian threat will move. In any event, the game has changed. Russia will play the fool if she thinks herself even a shadow of what she was. She has neither the ideological impulse, nor the military might to amount to a world-beater. But what I do expect for the next few decades is a Russia that constantly undermines America, works with its best tool (psychological deception) to deceive the West with the West’s own media. Unfortunately, people will die because of this.

I do feel sorrow for the country of Georgia. It is simply not in our best interest to rescue our ally. Strategically it may have disastrous results should we take up a military defense of Georgia, even if we won the day by repulsing Russian forces.

The West is timid, as before WWII. Will Russia attempt to seize the initiative and make a land grab before sleepy Europe can react? I doubt it, but we’ll see.