Mumbai attacks: anatomy of a failed strategy
Feb 10th, 2009 | By Editor | Category: Op-EdKanwal Sibal
| Lack of a bilateral response to the Mumbai attacks has allowed others to patronise us with advice to observe restraint, avoid tensions, engage in a dialogue with Pakistan, combat terrorism jointly, etc. |
Our post-Mumbai strategy has lacked purposefulness and coherence. We have been overly cautious in our reaction to the Mumbai carnage, as if the overriding concern was to somehow salvage the policy of engagement with Pakistan pursued in recent years. We were defensive in accusing “elements in Pakistan,” and not the state agencies, of the outrage, despite the common sense view that such a highly organised, skilful commando-style operation could not have been mou nted without institutional connivance and notwithstanding the earlier evidence of the involvement of the Inter-Services Intelligence in blasting our Kabul Embassy. Subsequently, the Prime Minister chose to mention the involvement of “official agencies.”….(Full Story)