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In the wake of the Mumbai terrorist attacks, pressure is mounting in India to respond in a "tough" way, similar to that of the United States. Accusations are flying, and many are being directed towards Pakistan, India's twin state with which it has been fighting on and off since the states became independent of British imperialism after WW2.It's too bad that we have set a precedent that will result in an escalation in the cycle of violence that will only make things worse. India, like us, has two choices: respond to the attacks by fighting a war and creating plenty of fresh victims. Or, pursuing the better path, to treat terrorism like the crime that it is. Of course that means that state terrorists should be treated as such and prosecuted (e.g. George Bush).
Treating terrorism like a crime instead of like a war is better because it implies a narrow, appropriate scale of force that will create a minimum of innocent victims, and hence a minimum of new terrorism as a result.
