from Times of India today :
It’s difficult to escape the sense of deja vu. The response to the latest terror outrage in Hyderabad was followed by the by-now familiar and stale drill: vows to bring the culprits to book, levelling, even if well-founded, charges against Pakistan and Bangladesh, condolences for victims and review meetings by the Prime Minister downwards.
People cannot be accused of being cynical if they dismiss these declarations as hollow and seem resigned for the next jehadi strike. For a country that for more than two decades now has been bled by relentless terror attacks, India has offered knee-jerk and sporadic attack-specific responses. In fact, it has been in a state of denial, first by claiming that no Indian was messed up with Al Qaida, and when that proved to be wrong, describing this vicious campaign of violence as the handiwork of a “handful of misguided youth”.
The response has to change if the bleeding is to stop. The first corrective will come by recognising the huge problem. The right diagnosis is a pre-requisite for cure, and it ranges from acknowledging that the scourge is no fabrication by agencies to creating synergies among agencies, strengthening policing and by creating the necessary political will.
Just raising elite teams isn’t enough nor is holding out threats to Pakistan sufficient. The key to the success of an honest counter-terrorism initiative lies in painstaking and sustained campaign to strengthen the criminal justice system and law enforcement machinery.
For all our aspiration to be a superpower, the harsh fact is that a lethal blend of corruption, inefficiency and political meddling have enfeebled our criminal justice administration and have sapped the police of will and strength to take on those killing the innocent.
Investigation into the Hyderabad carnage is still on, but there are pointers that the loss of life on Saturday could have been averted.
More from Times of India...
War on terror has only led to more strikes, deaths
28 Aug 2007, 0057 hrs IST,Subodh Varma,TNN
After 9/11, US President George Bush announced a Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) promising to rid the earth of terrorism. Six years and billions of dollars later, where does it stand? Has it succeeded in controlling international terrorist activity?
GWOT has three components. Operation Enduring Freedom is for conducting operations in Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa (Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia), trans-Sahara (Libya, Chad, Mauritania, Algeria, Senegal, etc), and the Philippines.
Operation Iraqi Freedom is the name for the war in Iraq, being fought by a coalition of 20 countries at present, but mainly comprising US forces. And, Operation Noble Eagle is the domestic component of GWOT, aimed at securing the safety of citizens within the US. In addition, there is a small component called Georgia Train and Equip, for supporting Georgian troops. Apart from direct military operations, GWOT involves diplomatic interventions, public relations, training, infrastructure building and reconstruction.
A comprehensive database of international terrorist strikes and deaths maintained by RAND Corporation and the National Memorial Institute for Prevention of Terrorism, supported by the US government’s Office of Homeland Security reveals that GWOT has not succeeded in its primary objective. The number of terrorist incidents as well as deaths due to them has actually increased since 9/11. In the 44.5 months immediately preceding the 9/11 attack, there was an average of 106 terrorist incidents per month. Since then, the number has increased to 186 incidents per month, excluding Iraq. If Iraq is included, the average rises to 284 incidents per month.
Similarly, deaths in terrorist attacks increased from an average 109 per month before 9/11 to 195 per month since then, excluding Iraq. Including Iraq increases the toll to 444 per month.
According to the US Government Accountability Offices Report No GAO-07-1056R submitted to the US Congress on July 26 this year, the US Department of Defense has been provided with $542.9 billion between 2001 and April 2007 for GWOT. The amount spent has been increasing every year. Of this, $324.9 billion has been for Operation Iraqi Freedom. About $76.5 billion have been spent on Operation Enduring Freedom and $27.7 billion on Operation Noble Eagle. As of now, however, there is little evidence that it is not money down the drain.