Inspiring dread

I've held off making some of these comments, lest I give people ideas. I've often wondered why Al Qaeda terrorists have gone to such convoluted means to make their terror attack - gas cylinders, exploding shoes, whatever, when a couple of blokes in a crossfire with handguns could do more damage and instill more terror by running round for hours afterwards.

Just like they have just done in Mumbai to such horrific and spectacular success. After all, Virginia Tech, Colombine High, kids have shown the way to spread mayhem and terror with a couple of semi-automatics, a planned team job hitting the right targets can, we now know, do much more. Including killing the chief of Mumbai anti-terror police.

The biggest danger is that mickey mouse outfits clock on to what a good trick this is, it is perfect asymmetric warfare, cheap tiger/flea tactics.

I think today is a very bad day indeed for the world.