The Mumbai Bombings and Global Politics

Here's a scattershot analysis of the Mumbai bombings and the geopolitical ramifications.

From Stratfor: "A massive and well-organized attack by militants in Mumbai, India, has left nearly 100 people dead so far, promises to cut deeply into India’s foreign investment prospects and threatens to rock India’s government. As India responds to the attack, its relationship with Pakistan will be front and center, and the potential for a destabilization of relations between the two geopolitical rivals is high." (Read India: The Need to React)

Afshin Rattansi's interview with CIA veteran Bill Christison: "Here Afshin Rattansi talks to Bill Christison, for nearly 30 years, the CIA's principal advisor on South Asia issues. Also, the significance of visits by President Medvedev and General Secretay Hu Jintao to Caracas and Havana."



Indian PM Manmohan Singh: Mumbai attackers based from outside of India

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh says the perpetrators of coordinated attacks on the financial capital Mumbai were likely based outside the country.

Mr. Singh addressed the nation Thursday, a day after heavily armed men attacked 10 sites in the city, killing about 100 people and wounding about 300. Without specifying another nation, he said he will tell "neighbors" that the use of their territory for launching terrorist attacks will not be tolerated.

As Mr. Singh was speaking, Indian security forces were moving through two luxury hotels - The Taj Mahal Palace and the Oberoi-Trident - in an attempt to free hostages and find remaining gunmen. Gunfire and explosions were heard from the hotels, and another fire broke out at the Taj after an earlier blaze caused serious damage to the historic building.

Police were also trying to resolve a standoff at a building belonging to a Jewish group.

Wednesday night, groups of assailants with machine guns and grenades attacked several locations popular with foreigners and business people, including hotels and train stations.

Witnesses said gunmen were looking for U.S. and British citizens.



CNN: Commandos raid Mumbai hotels



Russia Today: Indian commandos storm hotels in Mumbai



BBC: Indian Commandos Storm Jewish Center to Free Hostages

The BBC does not currently allow embedding, so you must click here to view this content.

Russia and China Exploit American Weakness and Folly

Further to Bill Christison's comments on the presence of Russia and China in the Venezuela and Cuba and its implication of American weakness in its "near abroad," here are a few videos covering Hu and Medvedev in both Cuba and Venezuela. Both are encroaching on the United States' traditional sphere of influence by taking advantage of US weakness due to the GWOT, the Iraq War, Bush's impotence, the loss of American financial leadership, and a host of other issues, and one assumes that China and Russia's intentions range from selfish to malevolent. However, after years of mismanagement of national resources, misguided and wasteful policies, an absurd embargo of Cuba, and neglect of South America and the Caribbean, these geopolitical shifts should surprise no one. Even so, the pity of it is that none of this was inevitable.

Hu Jintao in Cuba



Hugo Chavez in Beijing (in Spanish)



Dimitri Medvedev In Cuba



Dimitri Medvedev Venezuela



Russian Military Exercises in Venezuela



And so it seems Russia is helping Venezuela become a nuclear power: Russia-Venezuela nuclear accord. If I were a gambling man, I would put my money on the likelihood that nuclear proliferation is now occurring world-wide at a frightening clip.