John Robb had an assessment of the Mumbai attacks: Bombing systems in Bombay.

Lexington Green responded on Chicago Boyz: The Mumbai Attack: A Success for "Global Guerillas"?

Tom's comment:

I think Lex is basically on target here. There is the tendency now to exalt the strategic cleverness of terrorists. I think Robb is correct on systempunkts being targeted, but I also think such targeting is unlikely to overwhelm. The key here is the desire of people to carry on. That's why Hamas and Hezbollah go nowhere, while Israel can turn the West Bank into complete disarray. Israelis refuse to give in, while the Palestinians stew in the victimhood.

4GWers in general buy into Occidentalist views too much: West are pussies and easily put into chaos (we've gone soft with our liberalism and rationalism and feminism and all those machines we depend on, thus we are so vulnerable). Meanwhile, the guerrilla cultures of all stripes are so tough, masculine (keep their women in place), close to nature, natural warriors--all the "good stuff" that we remember now in Russell Crowe and Mel Gibson movies.

And yes, this Occidental description extends into the East, so I'm not out of place extending it to rising India. In effect, this bias is now equivalent to modern development (such as Japan or South Korea) or even the aspiration for the same (or basically, my New Core states like India or China). To move in this direction is to suffer all the same weaknesses, in the eyes of the Occidentalist mindset. This is what I told the Chinese a couple of weeks ago: "Soon, you will be viewed by many in the Gap as the face of globalization/modernization and thus you too will be targeted."

Believe such a shift is impossible? Tell it to the Japanese: once the center of Occidentalism (it led them to believe the ultimate "punch" called Pearl Harbor would flatten the weak and decadent America), it is now a post-modernist dream, and thus a target itself of Occidentalism.

There is a profound reason why we're rich and powerful and connected and the enemy is none of those things. Terrorism is a strategy of the weak, and it earns them only what the powerful decide they no longer want.

As I opined in BFA, there are no lasting 4GW victories. Yes, sometimes conflicts are won, but what is really achieved? Look at Cuba or Nicaragua or Palestine--or best yet--Vietnam or China?

All these 4GW "victors" got was amazingly bloody disconnectedness, and--when they got smart--then they came back crawling to the system, the nets, the rules, the "decadence."

4GW is not some apogee. No Kaplanesque romanticism please. This is the dregs and nothing more.

Our nets are our strengths. They will attack and we will grow more resilient. Bush was right: Bring it on. Speed the killing. Flush the losers. Extend the nets. Be resilient.

Watch India. These attacks will accomplish nothing.