Risk Factors
The attacks in Mumbai reveal the vexing complexity of the interconnected conflicts throughout south Asia. Full Story »
Posted by Derek HawkinsReview
The best I've read on this topic. Five for context: This covers nuances of the attacks and the impending international response that most publications haven't touched -- among them Pakistan's shattered sense of statehood and the Bush administration's ineptness in coordinating foreign policy across the region's governments. Cites several qualified experts, but is not reliant on them. Contains independent analysis and reads with a strong voice.
Some commentators have simply demanded that Pakistan rid itself of the virus of extremism that threatens its own security as well as its neighbors’. But which Pakistan is going to do it? The weak civilian government of President Asif Zardari? The two-faced security services? The tribal leaders along the Afghanistan border? The huge, overwhelmingly poor, tumultuous population? The core problem is that Pakistan is no longer really a country, if it ever was.
Derek posted this story.
Western pundits and press have succumbed to the inexactitude that this is "India's 9/11," and by and large have written pieces suggesting a response as hasty and reckless as the Bush administration's. But, as this opinion offers, there is no sweeping solution to the Mumbai attacks, which seem to have proven as symbolically significant as they were deadly. This takes nothing for granted. Compare to today's International Herald Tribune editorial or William Kristol's op-ed in the New York Times last week (links)