Thoughts on Mumbai

1) CNN keeps trying to tell me that this is al-Qa'ida, but I am
hesitant to believe this. al-Qa'ida's methodology (to my knowledge)
is: quick, brutal, high body count, with high levels of martyrdom
(usually suicide bombing on a large scale). I see none of these
elements in Mumbai. Going into a hotel with guns and grenades?
Sounds more like a militia to me, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
The attacks have been going on for hours now, yet the body count is
only at 160 (give or take). Militants have been engaging Indian and
World officials with poor accuracy and inefficiency. If these
terrorists wanted maximum impact (as, I believe, al-Qa'ida would) they
would have gone into the hotels, not with guns and grenades, but with
powerful explosives strapped to their chests. Maximum impact would be
piles of rubble where once were major hotels.

2) I keep hearing that these attacks were well-executed. I do agree
that the attacks are far reaching and certainly terrifying, but
well-executed? There has been time for civilians, even Americans and
British who have been primary targets, to evacuate. Members of the
press are within camera range of the conflict, and (at least in some
areas) civilians are not very far from combat zones. I do not
consider that good execution, at least not from the standpoint of
causing terror. It, again, sounds more like a military style action
than a splinter-cell terrorist attack.

3) These attacks have a personal tinge to them. If the baddies in
Mumbai didn't care about the lives of civilians than they would not be
engaging peace-keeping forces. They would not be using bullets, they
would be using explosives. That this attack, though horrific, seems
to have more of a capture than a kill element shows me that the
baddies don't want to kill those that they don't feel deserve it.
True terrorism is blind, large-reaching attacks that do not care if
the victims share ideologies or nationalities. Even if there were
other members of the same organization in the building, it wouldn't
matter: the hardcore level of terrorist like al-Qa'ida spare NO ONE.

4) In contrast, the attacks on the Chabad community center were quick,
efficient, and lethal. That looked more like a professional hit than
anything else. I propose that, perchance, these are two separate
groups; one capitalizing on the chaos created by the other. It is
just as likely that this is a two-tiered attack, but the disparity
between efficacy of the two seems too much to me.

Those are my current theories, feel free to tell me off and call me a
wanker. I am only a layman.

-DubTak