7/25 - A date the world will not remember

Some dates, such as 9/11, 7/7, and 7/11, will be forever stuck in the world's psyche due to the awful destruction caused by the terrorist attacks in New York, London, and Mumbai on those dates in respectively. On the other hand, 7/25 lies far below on the radar, the events of this day barely making the brief sections of international news organizations and was quickly overshadowed by the events that transpired on 7/26 in Ahmedabad.

On 7/25/2008, terrorists struck the peaceful city of Bangalore with eight low-intensity devices that were seemingly intended to disrupt the peace and economy of the city rather than inflict casualties. I was at the Indian Institute of Science campus at the time of the attacks and upon hearing of them, drove home immediately, stopping to drop off a friend at home along the way, and watched television for information on the attacks. For the rest of the day on Friday, I really did not pay much attention to the attacks and went through my normal routine.

On 7/26, as I prepared to head out to my cousin's place for a Saturday night out on the town, I was told about bomb blasts in Ahmedabad by my grandmother, but there was a power cut at the time and could not get more information. As I drove to my cousin's place, I realized that there has been a fundamental change in my outlook.

As I drove alongside ongoing construction on the Bangalore-Hyderabad highway, I reminisced about my thoughts from previous days. They were the thoughts of citizens living in "normal" countries around the world (as opposed to countries we readily associate with strife such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, etc). They were concerned with the progress of road construction on the highway, the progress of the construction of the Bangalore metro, wondering whether the UPA government at the Center would survive the trust vote or not, speculation about whether crude prices would continue on their downward trend, whether the Indian stock exchanges would continue on their upward trend, how the monsoon would play out in the coming months and whether the nuclear deal with the United States would go through or not.

Of course, all these issues do make it into my thoughts still, but as I was driving yesterday, for a brief moment, they seemed to be supplanted by something far more basic. For the first time that I can recall, I was thinking about whether the government could protect my life. Of course, India is no stranger to terrorism, with 13 major bomb blast incidents occurring in the country in the last five years (not including any in terrorism-prone Jammu and Kashmir), 10 of them in the last three years. But they always occurred in Mumbai, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Varanasi, Delhi ... places far enough away to elicit sympathy but not really hit home.

Now that it's happened in my city, more importantly when I was in it as opposed to being in the field or in the U.S., the feeling of "it could happen to me" struck me yesterday. Despite the fact that "only" 2 persons died from the terrorist attacks in Bangalore, yesterday as I drove, I felt a momentary sense of solidarity with persons driving through the streets of Srinagar, Kabul or Baghdad. Perhaps persons in those cities are more desensitized to the violence and Bangalore's attacks were more jarring because this is such a peaceful town and I fervently hope that it stays that way (i.e., the violence never gets the level where we begin getting desensitized). But I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that the events of 7/25 contributed to a loss of Bangalore's innocence to an extent.

The increased vigil of citizens around the city prompted a provision store owner to call the police yesterday morning about a suspicious package left across the road, which turned out to be a live bomb and was defused by the bomb squad. Yesterday's incident was a reminder that despite the attacks on 7/25, we need to continue to maintain a higher level of vigil.

At the time of writing, five persons have been injured in a low-intensity bomb blast in the state of Jharkhand. God save India!

America's Downfall

Now that the headline captured your attention, I'm not talking about the Iraq War or the actions of any of the members of the Axis of Evil. Rather, America's foreign policy and its elaborate plans to stabilize Afghanistan will be laid to waste by its so-called "ally" in the war on terror, Pakistan.

When General Musharraf was dictator of Pakistan, the Bush administration lavished billions of dollars of aid and Musharraf kept the American establishment content by providing a top al-Qaeda figurehead every now and then to prove his anti-terror credentials, while simultaneously ignoring the proliferation of a Pakistani Taliban bent on sabotaging the American-backed Hamid Karzai government in Afghanistan. He also exercised little control over Pakistan's rogue Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which has carefully bred Islamic terrorists at home to use in a proxy war against India in the Kashmir dispute.

At least back then, the Pakistani government had some control over the Army and the ISI. Now, Pakistan is back to its familiar workings - a state where the civilian government has little actual authority over either its military or its intelligence services. Now that the ISI is free to let loose again, they have acted swiftly, attacking Indian interests in Afghanistan. India, a major backer of the anti-Taliban rebel Northern Alliance group, has poured over $750 million into Afghanistan in development projects and India's influence in Afghanistan must certainly have made Pakistan uneasy. But don't trust the Indian ambassador's words, even the Afghan government has pretty much blamed the ISI for carrying out the attack.

But the U.S. is the ostrich with its head in the sand. Even esteemed American newspaper organizations like the New York Times completely refuse to give credence to the fact that America's beloved ally may actually be sleeping with the enemy, making the Indian allegation seem completely without evidence and completely ignoring the fact that the Afghan government has made the same claims, by devoting all of one contemptuous sentence to the very real and important possibility that an American ally may be a state sponsor of terrorism: "Not surprisingly, Pakistan was swiftly blamed for the bombing, and just as swiftly, denied having a hand in it."

Perhaps the New York Times doesn't want to upset its Pakistani-American reader base and lose out on subscriptions or perhaps the attitude of the New York Times reflects the attitude of the American government, complete and utter denial of the fact that its so-called ally could really be one of the biggest destabilizers in the region.

Whatever the reasons, the situation is clear that America possesses neither the willpower nor the foresight to actually secure Afghanistan. It really is time for India to act like a regional power and deploy military forces in the region to protect its interests. India should not hesitate to strike within Pakistan and if the U.S. has any problems, too bad. The U.S. is responsible for Afghanistan being in this pathetic state in the first place after it diverted resources towards an unnecessary war for oil in Iraq. It's time for America to wake up and realize the ground realities that its ally is not as benign as it seems (as well as for the toothless U.S. media outlets (which in a democratic country, should be ashamed of themselves for their [lack of] journalistic courage)). In the meantime, let's go, India. Step up and fulfill your responsibility as a regional power. The time has come!