Attack on India -- possible solutions for prevention of such events

As the attacks on Mumbai are being resolved and the actual scale of the damage is being realized, the main question in most people's minds is why was this allowed to happen and what can be done to prevent something similar from happening again. Whenever bad things happen, mistakes are made, it is imperative that they are noted, that we try to recover from them. At the same time, it is necessary to remember these mistakes and ensure that they are never again repeated.

The identification of these mistakes and ensuring this is the task to the authorities. There have been several issues identified. Images of Mr Hemanth Karkare putting on his helmet and bullet proof vest have been splashed all across the news channel. How then was it possible for him to die due to bullet wounds on his chest. Is the bullet proof vest not meant to protect him from that? Are they of such low quality that they cannot perform the one task they are meant to achieve? The other issue raised is the well publicized one of the plane for the NSG commandos due to which they were delayed. This raises a few questions, one -- why a big cities like Mumbai do not have something similar to NSG commandos? two -- Why could commandos or maybe the army that may have been stationed at a nearby army base not called into action when the delay was communicated? three -- the well documented problem of waiting for the flight and its reasons.

There are several other mistakes that have been made and are being identified. However, an issue that has so far not been raised is one of trying to get to the root of the issue. To prevent these terrorists from being persuaded into being terrorists. These terrorists are believed to be islamists propogating terror in the name of a religion. Isn't it then a huge blot on the religion. Muslims, due to the doing of these people already suffering all over the world.

As a commenter on an article posted, isn't this more of a disgrace to Islam than the danish cartoons. Shouldn't the muslims of the world unite and protest against this -- much more than they protested the danish cartoons? Shouldn't the major leaders of the religion come out with condemnations of the event. I may have missed them, but these haven't been very visible. Is this relative silence from them an implicit condoning of the events?

I believe that if a large majority of the leaders come out against this event and distance themselves there maybe a realization in the minds of the impressionable youth who are recruited. In addition to the leaders, if a large number of muslims distance themselves and reject this violent form of Islamism, it is possible that the perpetrators may realize the folly. I really hope this happens.

The terrorists may still not be convinced, but maybe there is a chance. I do hope that the distancing these people from Islam happens, that the religious leaders condemn the attacks. India and the world deserves peace and get back to solving 'normal' problems like the economy.