“let us not get sucked into afghanistan, diverting everyones attention to ourselves. let us first improve our homeland security, then venture into afghanistan. if we venture unprepared on the home front, we will be inviting them aghanistan, while our internal security is worse than, US, UK and also Pakistan. look at the state in Pakistan, despite having one of the best intelligence agencies and their armed forces directly involved in internal security (even rangers are under the army) they are having it left right and centre, and imagine what would be our state with our quality of intelligence agencies, police and paramilitary forces.
so, let us first look at our internal reforms, intelligence, police, crisis management body, decision making capabilities etc.”

so what is the other option? covert operations?

“as much i would like this (covert operations) to happen, we do not have the capability. u really have to meet a few of the RAW functionaries to believe it. that’s why its name Research and analysis wing. it only does research and analysis like the babus. thank god the NSA also resigned with the home minister. let us find a more active (and for god’s sake not a policeman again) NSA who can really advise on capacity building, and reforms of the intelligence agencies to make them understand, that they are not clerks (their largest strength sits in delhi, rather than field). their field component should be the prime focus, with rest in support and advisory role.”

capability building (to make out intelligence agencies capable of undertaking covert operations) will take minimum 5-8 years by very conservative estimates.

so accorn what solution? (i am also not in favour of parakram II). i don’t think anyone can find a solution except internal reforms.

Photonman @ 18

we were not reacting to unconventional warfare during parakram, but penalising a country which provided active support to conduct the operation on the parliament. minimum we could have pushed the pakis to a more defensive line (defensible against infiltration), along poonch river and other such options in the valley. this would have resulted in a loss of face for the pakis, a lesson that any such act in future would be penalised and of course we would have had a more defensible line, to make infiltration very difficult. of course this is not a solution now, because it is very probable that the Pak govt was not actively involved. (if they were! god bless us, they have raised our threshold levels for reaction very high.)

I agree that Operation Parakram failed to achieve its objective and as such, was a waste of time, efforts and money. I would rather prefer small initiatives (with possibility of expansion) with long term impacts.

How about making the armed forces an attractive career option for graduates and young people? How about having a 2 or 3 year track for the Short Service Commission?

If you read about the role played by South African commandos (in saving the lives of several tourists in Mumbai), it is easy to see the benefits of having well-trained people around – not necessarily on duty!

Reports indicate that all three were killed in the vicinity of Cama Hospital. There might be one aspect that they were taken by surprise and the speed of constantly moving attackers because they underestimated the threat.

As it was a developing situation, none of them had any prior knowledge of the kind of training and arms the terrorists were carrying. Mr. Karkare, in one of the last visuals, is seen carrying an automatic pistol in hand and nothing else.

However there is another sinister aspect that would require intense probe. Was there an internal mole, embedded in the security establishment, who was revealing the co-ordinates of these officers to the terrorists ? This is one aspect that must not be overlooked.

The element of local support is crucial to carry out the attack. There might have been already waiting taxis, fully prepared to ferry all these fellows when they landed at colaba.

But to travel thousand of nautical miles into Indian waters requires a kind of support which terror groups dont have. That is why this attack must be seen as one implemented by the pakistani state.

The media is making a huge mistake by showing the families of these heroes on TV. NDTV is zooming in on the faces of some of the family members.

Rule no 1 : Never expose the families of commandos.

Rule no 2 : Allow the family members to grieve in peace first, before moving in your OB vans. Do not cover the part where the family members and friends grieve in private.

I am also guilty because I watch this crap and add to their viewership.

Do these media outfits have no security guidelines ?

Sorry, I am really worked up over this.

You guys are awesome – you write well (all of you)
But quit having pseudonyms like retributions and offstumped and anything else and get serious with real names…not too far from now, y’all will be the National Review of India…

Tks