As far away as Jerusalem, Kerry's wise words still resonate

[beachmom]

An interesting op-ed in the Jerusalem Post about Mumbai and terrorism:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1227702420042&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

AS JOHN Kerry said when he ran for president, the war on terror is mainly a matter of police work - about national and international intelligence and security agencies cooperating with one another to prevent attacks. That's the main reason why 9/11 has not been repeated in the US, and why al-Qaida-style attacks on Western targets since then have killed a total of about 1,000 people, not the hundreds of thousands or millions that everyone expected seven years ago.

Bad intelligence and security is the only reason why the Mumbai attack succeeded. That's the only lesson, the only "wake-up call" from the event - that India was unbelievably vulnerable and that it now has a lot of holes to plug, which is something India seems to realize better than anyone else.

For the rest of us, there's no reason for paralyzing fear, or for canceling trips abroad, or for becoming resigned to total war with Pakistan and/or Iran. Just the opposite - the rarity of an attack like the one in Mumbai is a reason for confidence. It's a reason for believing that if we, the enemies of jihad, go on doing more or less what we've been doing for the last seven years, Islamism will eventually collapse of its own weight.

And the writer seems to be quite pleased with Obama's new foreign policy team:

For its part, the democratic world can hasten the end of jihad by fighting a better war on terror - by balancing military force and diplomacy more wisely, and by avoiding unnecessary provocations to Muslims at large. Ending Israel's occupation would remove one such provocation. As for balancing force and diplomacy - and maybe even for ending Israel's occupation - I find it hard to think of a more promising leadership for the democratic world than Barack Obama as US president, Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, Robert Gates as secretary of defense and James Jones as national security adviser.

This is another reason for confidence - despite the horror at Mumbai.