H John Poole is Marine combat veteran of Vietnam, specialising in small unit and individual tactics. He rose to the rank of a Gunnery Sergeant (Gunny), a high rank among Marines.
He has written a series of books on tactics and strategies in commando warfare. Two of his books Tactics of the crescent moon: Militant Muslim Combat Methods and Militant Tricks: Battlefield Ruses of the Islamic Insurgent became required reading for Special Forces soldiers in Iraq. Poole, in an email interview, placed the Mumbai attacks in a strategic affairs context and also talked about why Islamic militants aren’t the only source of worry for India.
Question: Should India act against Pakistan after the Mumbai attacks?
Answer: Pakistan's current government is much more trustworthy than the last one. While the ISI may have formerly used LeT as a proxy in Kashmir, this may or may not still be going on. Even if it were, that does not mean the ISI is behind the Mumbai attack.
LeT is radical enough to do this on its own, or even to do it for the right price from a third party. The real threat to India appears to be the Chinese Communist inspired Naxalite rebellion on your east coast. Now that Nepal has officially joined the Chinese camp, there will be more subversion in both Bangladesh and Northeastern India to acquire full access to a warm water port.
Question: But why shouldn’t we react because the captured terrorist has admitted that they were all Lasher-e-Taiba recruits?
Answer: Okay to say LeT did it, just don't automatically infer a rogue ISI connection or Pak government complicity. LeT has been improperly reported by US media to be a creation of the ISI. That's not what my research shows.
The US State Dept.'s Patterns of Global Terrorism claims it to be the armed wing of MDI, a Sunni anti-US missionary organization formed in 1989. For several years now, MDI has gone by the name of Jamaat-ul-Dawa and LeT by the name of Khairus Naas.
Question: Why were the US and British citizens the prime targets in the attack on Mumbai?
Answer: I suspect it was to further the mistaken belief within the US that militant Muslims are their only enemy. For anyone who has closely followed events in Africa and Latin America, it's clear that the Chinese are profiting from the monopoly on natural resources that destabilization brings. In Africa, the best examples are in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Out of the 20 or so Latin American nations, only seven still have rightist regimes.
And those seven either have Communist insurrections or Venezuelan and drug funded political opposition with Cuban advisors. It should be equally obvious to you that China is ultimately behind your Naxalite rebellion.
The US is currently under attack from organized crime elements south of our border. A huge influx of Asian heroin (from Afghan opium) is imminent. The US is currently under a drug deluge from organized crime elements south of our border. Both Russia and China have been known to use organized crime factions as strategic instruments. The pipeline of Asian heroin into New York through Vancouver, Canada, has been well interdicted. That same heroin (possibly to include Afghan product) will now come through Mexico. As massive corruption normally accompanies a big influx of drugs, US authorities are extremely worried about the strategic implications.
Question: What do you think of India’s response to the entire episode?
Answer: These things are tough to stop, because there are so many variations possible. The Indian response was as good as any Western nation could have mounted. Your fine security establishment may now want to keep a little closer watch on the waterfront, but they did well under very difficult circumstances and now richly deserve the nation's thanks.
(Shishir Prasad is deputy editor at the new business magazine to be launched by Network18 in alliance with Forbes, USA)
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