By Peter Mannino

“We’ve got the Taliban and terrorists’ lines of communications, and they’re on the run.” These were the words from President Bush on Friday, Nov. 21 at Fort Campbell, Ky. Five days later, Mumbai exploded on Wednesday, Nov. 26. A coordinated terrorist attack targeted two five-star hotels, the city’s largest train station, a Jewish center, a hospital and a movie theater, killing at least 180 people. Really, Mr. President, are the terrorists really on the run?

The most concerning part of it is the shear amount of resources that were needed to carry out the attack. The attackers had dozens of machine guns, grenade launchers, and bombs meaning that they were well-equipped, and the timing of the attacks suggests sophisticated communication and planning.

Furthermore, the chairman of one of the hotels reported that they had had warning that an attack might come, and that they “had measures” to prevent an attack. However, CNN reported that, “there were indications that the hotel relaxed the security before the attack.” In other words, the terrorists knew there was tight security, and knew when it became relaxed in order to make the attack easier. This suggests the possibility of an inside man, and again demonstrates the amount of resources necessary to carry out the attack.

This attack is a major success for Al-Qaeda and its sister organizations, and shows the real cost that Iraq has put on the actual War on Terror. As America toiled in Iraq, terrorists re-emerged in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and have obviously become strong enough to stage a large scale attacks just like Mumbai.

The other part of this is that it re-hatches the “Asian cold-war.” There has been a long and violent dispute between India and Pakistan over the Indian controlled territory of Kashmir. Recently, the dispute between these two countries has cooled, but these attacks have sparked allegations that Pakistan was involved.

For its part, the Pakistani government has been quick to offer its condolences, and declared that it will not go nuclear first. Yet, not a week has passed and it has become painfully obvious that relations have already deteriorated; reports have come in that the Indian government is considering ending talks with Pakistan, and suspending the cease-fire agreement.

This conflict is shaping up to be another momentous challenge for President-elect Obama, and I am sure no one is monitoring the situation closer than he is. This week, he was scheduled to unveil his national security team, and not a moment too soon. He is going to need a team of smart and experienced leaders, and I believe that is what he got from his picks of Hillary Clinton, Jim Jones and Robert Gates.

His choices are interesting because it shows that as president, Obama is going to be tougher on foreign policy than most anyone expected. It is also going to be very interesting to see how he and Clinton interact. After all, the only major differences between Clinton and Obama during the primary were their approaches to foreign policy.

As for now, President-elect Obama is really doing all he can. There seems to be a power vacuum left in Washington by a useless Republican lame-duck, and Obama is doing all he can to fill that vacuum, but it is difficult because he really has no power right now.

The last time the lame-duck session of Congress was shortened was in 1933 when Franklin Roosevelt became president. Perhaps now would be a good time to shorten it again, to allow President-elect Obama to actually act on the crisis in India, instead of forcing him to simply issue statements condemning the attacks.

Peter Mannino is a sophomore political science student. You may e-mail him at [email protected].