Today, exactly one week from the attacks in Mumbai, India.  

We in the United States are more shaken up than the people in India who by now are used to terrorist attacks and bomb blasts in their cities.    But the question we need to ask in the US is what lessons we need to learn from this horrific event and apply in our society? The answer is simple, “Nothing”.

Let us dissect the events and compare them with the scenario in the US, in the sense of how we would have differed in our response.

Intelligence report clearly indicated that our eavesdropping capabilities had recorded the terrorist chatter which had given clear indication as to a seaborne attack into the financial and tourist district of Mumbai. It went on to clarify that it was likely to be carried out by individual or individuals with assault rifles and fragmentation grenades. It also clearly named Taj Hotel as one of the likely targets.   Had this been in the US, our Homeland Security would have raised the level of alert and prepared for this eventuality.

In order to execute such a precision attack, the terrorists must have had a year or more of reconnaissance and surveillance, but somehow that never triggered any attention among the law enforcement or security personnel there. This type of gross negligence is not possible in the United States where even our most careless civilian population would have noticed this type of inappropriate and out-of-ordinary behaviors.

When the first attacks started in the CTS station formerly known as  the Victoria Terminus, the two gunmen with no body armor but in simple soccer jersey and jeans managed to open fire at the passengers. They had calculated and surveyed the Police response time and the arrival and departure of the trains, which itself would lead to more chaos and confusion.

Eye witness report confirmed that the two gunmen laid down suppressive fire alternatively almost as if they are well trained commandoes. In return, however, the Mumbai Police, the CRP (Indian Federal Police) froze, took cover and never even unholstered their weapons. While all this mayhem was going on, the New Delhi Television showed up to make a direct coverage of what they had initially thought was gang violence, until the gunmen successfully walked out of the station unaffected and unscathed and proceeded onto engaging their secondary target location. 

This type of incident will never occur in the United States as the existing violence in our society has made our law enforcement and first responders aware of the necessities to fire back should they see an immediate threat of life. They will never hesitate to respond effectively especially if the perpetrators are without protective body armors.

While the CTS shooting was underway, simultaneous attacks were taking place at multiple locations in Mumbai, including assassination of the Anti-terror Squad Chief and top police officials. This shows the accuracy of the inside information and quality of surveillance by the terrorist.

As the evening proceeded in Mumbai, numerous law enforcement agencies responded, but if anyone observed, most of the first responders were in total disarray. Some Police units responded carrying World War I vintage Lee Enfield bolt action rifles.  They failed to control the situation and more importantly failed to provide recon and intelligence on the terrorists. They kept on reporting that over 100 men with AK47 had attacked numerous locations, while simple visual confirmation should have indicated that roughly no more than 20 individuals with assault rifles and grenades were executing these attacks. 

In this situation most US cities would have responded with their Police SWATs and would have effectively diffused the situation.

However, in Mumbai the authorities responded with the deployment of the Federal Paramilitary Forces BSF and called in the Indian Army and their anti terror special unit the NSG.   NSG was formed in 1985 after the rise of the Sikh terrorism, they are normally armed with H&K Mp5 submachine gun, sig Sauer 9mm pistol, and 12 gauge shotguns. They wear black balaclava and rumor has it that they have trained with other elite anti terrorist units such as the German GSG9 and  the Israelis. However, this time they failed to respond as they could not manage to find a flight from their base in New Delhi and their arrival was delayed by good 12 hours.

In the mean time, the Army units responded along with Indian Navy Commandoes (the ‘Marcos”). The clear lack of leadership among the ‘Marcos”, inter services rivalry,  and  the lack of presence from the civilian authorities created chaos. The Army’s deployment lacked professionalism and showed their unpreparedness for a close quarter battles as most of the conventional units responded with their behemoth FN FAL Rifles instead of something more compact such as a MP 5 or the M4 to effectively execute CQB.

The arrival of the NSG added to the confusion and chaos and made inter services rivalry even more severe. During this entire incident, the civilian authorities were nowhere to be found, there was lack of intelligence and reconnaissance, and the senior military and counter terrorist officers went into hiding at a safe undisclosed location.

Anyone has watched the continual coverage in NDTV would have noticed the different colored uniform personnel running around aimlessly or taking cover.

By the time the situation was fully contained almost 200 innocent people had lost their lives, over 300 innocent people had been injured and thousands had been left with permanent emotional scars which they will live with for the rest of their lives.

Now had this been in the United States, our Police and SWAT would have effectively contained the situation. Had this been where we had to deploy our National Guardsmen or even deploy FBI HRT, they would have functioned effectively under one military authority and our officers would have led from the front. 

As we all know terrorism is a fact of life, and we can delay it, postpone it, but sooner or later we can all be attacked. We as a society need to be constantly vigilant and observe for any unusual behaviors. Our law enforcements should be fast in responding to any and all credible threats.

Our military has been engaged in an asymmetrical warfare since the late 1970’s and we are quite capable of avoiding situations like the one in Mumbai.