BEING WELL PREPARED AND WELL ARMED ARE THE KEYS TO SAFETY

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and will never be. ~ Thomas Jefferson

At least 10 terrorists, having arrived by small craft on the shores of Mumbai, began to sow death and destruction at will across India's financial capital.They were at a distinct advantage because of the lack of fire power in those charged with security and the police force within the City of Mumbi.


What resulted was three days of battle between well armed Muslim terrorists and poorly armed security force. What happened in Mumbai shows just how a small but ruthless group of skilled militants, attacking multiple targets in quick succession, managed to bring one of the world's largest cities to its knees. The human toll -- currently at 174 fatalities, including nine terrorists -- was exacerbated by the Indian authorities' lack of preparedness, and failure to arm those charged with securing the safety of the citizens and visitors to this vacation "paradise" close to the Taj Mahal.The chain of events also points to just how vulnerable any major city can be to this type of urban warfare if it is not prepared!


At about 9:45 p.m., two gunmen, slender and in their mid-20s, ran up the circular driveway at the entrance to the Trident Hotel. They shot the security guard and two bellhops. The hotel had metal detectors, but none of its security personnel carried weapons because of the difficulties in obtaining gun permits from the Indian government, according to the hotel company's chairman, P.R.S. Oberoi. The gunmen raced through the marble-floored lobby, past the grand piano into the adjoining Veranda restaurant, firing at the guests and shattering the windows.

At the end of the lobby, they burst into a bar called the Opium Den, shooting dead a hotel staff member. Then they ran after a group of guests who tried to escape through a rear service area. They killed them, too.

They killed four of six friends who live in south Mumbai and had just settled down at a table near the front door. One member of the group, a mother of two, threw herself to the ground and shut her eyes, pretending to be dead. The men circled the restaurant, firing at point blank range into anyone who moved before rushing upstairs to an Indian restaurant called Kandahar.

"Remember Babri Masjid?" one of the gunmen shouted, referring to a 16th-century mosque built by India's first Mughal Muslim emperor and destroyed by Hindu radicals in 1992.
The policemen were badly outgunned. The gunmen killed one officer and escaped down the stairs, into a narrow alley that separates Cama Hospital from another hospital called GT.

In the alley, the state of Maharashtra's anti terrorism chief, Hemant Karkare, sat in a police SUV packed with fellow officers, trying to coordinate a response to the mayhem engulfing the city. Creeping up, the two militants sprayed the vehicle with gunfire.

The officers appear to have died before any of them had a chance to fire back. The wall and metal blinds behind the van's spot are riddled with bullets. Not a single bullet mark could be seen by a reporter in the area from which the terrorists fired.

B.S. Sidhu, head of the Railway Protection Force for the Mumbai region, says that while some officers tried to fight back, there was little his force could do. Most police officers at the station -- as they are throughout India -- were unarmed or carried only bamboo sticks known as lathis. More than 40 people, including three police officers, were killed in just a few minutes, authorities said. The wounded survivors screamed for help amid acrid smoke, piles of slumped, bloodied bodies and spilling suitcases.SOURCE:Niraj Sheth in Mumbai and Krishna Pokharel in New Delhi

Here in the USA there are those who would take away the firearms of the citizens, a right guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. This massacre that happened in a vacation city in India could have been snipped in the bud if there were not only armed police, but a few dozen inhabitants who had the right to keep guns in their place of business and homes. The terrorists knew full well that the resistance would be minimal at best, because of the Pacifist nature of Indian authorities.

Let us not give in to those who would take away our guns. Then only criminals would have guns, and thank God we have a semi-vigilant Homeland Security force. If we let down our guard and follow those who believe They can just talk to terrorist and everything will be alright. We will have the carnage that was wrought upon the people in Mumbi.
The price of freedom is vigilance a smart man once said!