mumbai terror and beyond

It is now almost a week since the terror attacks in Mumbai. A week is enough to go through the full repertoire of human emotions, starting from shock, to grief, to shame, to anger and then despair. Is it not time to act?
Who are these people? what do they want with us? my city? our city? whats their cause? who is their god? who is their leader?

They were a bunch of young men who knew no better than to be manipulated and to die on a strange shore, mere pawns, expendable, in someones gambit..should we accept this gambit or decline it? we who have had no war to fight or no cause to band under, can never engage in a battle with unknown enemies united by their hate, let alone win it.

So do we then tolerate this affront to our peace and wait for the next strike, by a bunch of new recruits with even more sinister plans. We know by now that those in whom we relied are incapable of protecting us. Ten kids proved that over 60 hours. Our defenders have no weapons, no training, no technology, and mostly no motivation. While we should undoubtedly be proud of the men who despite all this laid their lives on the line, what about their masters? The men who hide behind level Z security, whose protection we pay for, whose protectors seem well equipped enough to stop a small war. Did we elect them to serve us , or rule and loot us?

What lies beyond this terror? Surely this is not the end, but more like the opening moves in an ever escalating war of nerves. Can we rely on our leaders who have already let us down so badly, to manage the next few steps responsibly? I think we all know the answer. We have leadership on both sides, which has lost the respect of its people, and certainly are not in control.

Stand by and wait for a war fought by powerless men driven by their greed for power. A war in which many more young men will die. Many more innocents will end up being collateral damage. We will stand by and watch as they steal the innocence from our children. As a generation we have failed and have been failed by those whom we put in power.