Americans can empathize all too well with the outrage being expressed in India over the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
Just think back to the mood in the U.S. after we were attacked on 9/11.
What makes it worse is that it is becoming increasingly clear that the perpetrators came from Pakistan, a country with which India has had a long and frequently adversarial relationship.
But these two nuclear-armed neighbors must find a way, despite their history, to unite against the common enemy — terrorists who will do anything to roil the waters for their own purposes.
Another war between India and Pakistan — they have fought three since 1947 — must be forestalled with appropriate doses of diplomacy and action.
Such a conflict would destabilize the region and divert resources from fighting terrorism in Afghanistan and tribal regions in Pakistan. And the possibility that nuclear weapons could be involved makes it all the more grim.
We are glad to see that Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have gone to the region to urge restraint on the part of India and action on the part of Pakistan in rooting out terrorist elements.
Rice, in Pakistan on Thursday, said she had met with members of the Pakistani government and President Asif Ali Zardari and found the Pakistanis focused and committed to pursuing the people responsible.
The Pakistani government “does not in any way want to be associated with terrorist elements, and is indeed fighting to root them out wherever they find them,” Rice said.
The sophisticated attacks on Mumbai, perpetrated by 10 well-trained gunmen, took place in the city’s financial and entertainment center and resulted in more than 170 deaths. Included among the victims were six Americans.
Speculation about the terrorists’ affiliations, which appears to be increasingly well-founded, has centered on the the outlawed guerilla group, Laskar-e-Taiba. The group has its origins in the Pakistani-controlled portion of Kashmir, a region that is at the core of many disputes between the countries.
Indians are skeptical about Pakistan’s commitment to pursue the attackers, and for good reason. Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, was known to have supported and armed militant groups such as the LeT in the late 1980s and 1990s.
Many military analysts say elements within the intelligence agency still have connections to the LeT, as well as other radical groups, including the Taliban.
There is no doubt that Pakistan’s eight-month-old civilian government has its hands full in flushing out these entrenched and well-connected radicals, but it must, and the world community must support those efforts.
