Do we lack the killer instinct?

‘25 blasts in 24 hours, what next?’ screams the headlines on one news channel. ‘14 blasts, 14 dead, 140 injured’ screams another. People rush to condemn the dastardly act of bombs being set off in a hospital’s trauma wing. ‘How can they do it?’ is the common refrain. My question is ‘Why not?’ A terrorist has only one objective in his mind. That would be to terrorize. Ever heard of a peaceful terrorist who leaves roses inside the abandoned bag? No you won’t. Because then you won’t be scared of him and he’d be out of a job.

17 is the final count of blasts as I finally give up listening to the news channels. This seems familiar. Roll back to 2006. Mumbai saw something similar. Train after train was hit. Their timing was off on a couple of trains. Else the body count would have been more than 9/11. I wonder what we did after that. Did our intelligence bureaus become smarter? I’d love to imagine so. But to this date, the intelligence agencies of other nations command better respect. I’d love to talk about the exploits of CIA and MI6 but that would be too clichéd. Instead there’s one closer home as a nation and its intelligence agency that seems to be working better than its more famous cousins.

1972 Olympics would long be remembered for the deaths of innocent athletes. Yet their nation took the pledge to avenge their deaths. With blurring memories of the actions, clouded by intrigue and secrecy, it is hard to contemplate the exact details. But it does show that there was enough collateral damage to the perpetrators to force a paradigm shift in their path to attain their objectives. In 1976, the same nation said, “Hell no!” to a group of hijackers sitting half a continent away. Not only did they successfully recover the hostages, they also went on to slaughter the terrorists. And yet we sat mute witness to a group of 5 terrorists walk away into the Kandahar sunset, as our leaders did nothing. Not only did we do nothing then, we did nothing later on too. The prisoners we released are still standing. USA, even in their most controversial stances, still went and blew up $10 tents with $10000 missiles post 9/11. It was a statement that was needed and they made that statement. Come what may, if you strike us, we will not hesitate to retaliate wherever we deem suitable.

All in all, it makes me wonder. What makes our nation an epitome of perseverance? Why do I feel that the perpetrators of today’s event will live to tell about it to their grandchildren? Way back in time, when there were rumors that the plague in Surat was in fact a biological weapon tested by our enemy countries on us, I used to wonder. What if there were people, covertly yet totally insanely dedicated to only one cause? And that cause would be the protection of our nation from all enemies foreign and domestic. I had a rather humdrum name for it, ‘CDAC’ or the Comprehensive Defense and Attack Committee. It was to consist of brains from all fields. There would be political experts, economists, biologists, engineers, software specialists etc. All would be working together contemplating the different ways the country could be attacked, plan the countermeasures and then plot retaliation.

“No it can’t be done”, that’s all I have heard till date. I would love to imagine that it is being done. Not that I see it working, but then it is achieving its objective of being a covert operation. Then again the channels report that there is widespread horror and terror amongst the people, even the ones who were not affected by the blasts. The perpetrators responsible for this would just need to switch on their television set and flip to a news channel to see their work succeed. Truth be told, I’d have loved to see at least one man not try to steal his 15 seconds of fame with a scare story and rather just stick up his middle finger and say, “Fuck you! You can’t scare me with this. You’re gonna pay for this” and then later on someday have the news reporter cover a retaliation by the nation. That would get the attention of the terrorists. Not only would they see failure in being able to terrorize innocent public, but also not be sure when they would be on the wrong side of a ticking explosive device.

Somewhere in some darkened room that is owned by the nation’s rulers, they should be planning retribution. If the credit for this dastardly act is being claimed by an outfit operating right on our soil, we should dedicate our efforts in eliminating such pestilence. And this should not be stopped even if these elements exist on a foreign soil. While these individuals send boastful emails to media, where are our NSAs and NROs tracking down the origins of the emails, sending out S.W.A.T. teams authorized to use deadly force against the senders? With an IT industry boasting 300K+ workers, why is it so hard to engage in surveillance of electronic communication with an objective to catch such activity? Why do we see our government websites defiled while we so tolerantly let their websites stand?

So what do we need to do? Frankly, nothing significantly different. We still need to keep our plans for Sunday on track. We still need to venture out into the market and buy whatever we planned to buy. We need to show, as the common public, that this was not something that scares us. Let’s not have the news channels report that life is limping back to normalcy. Let us show that we took a running start back into it. At the same time, we need to understand what is to be done. We could be more vigilant about our surroundings. A suspicious package needs to be cordoned off. Don’t contaminate a scene by trying to be Sherlock Holmes. There are people with that job profile, who’d appreciate it if you left the things as they were. If you can’t help, you are better off out of the way. Bottom line is, “Be smart not scared.”

And next time some television reporter wants you to recant the tale of horror, please do stick up
your finger to the perpetrators and say, “Up yours!”

Note: To the families of those injured or killed in these incidents, let there be the strength to come to terms with the tragedy and go on. To the families of the medics who lost their lives while tending to the wounded, let there be pride in the knowledge that they performed their jobs beyond the call of duty in the face of an enemy who didn’t stop at performing inhumane actions.