By Richard Miller
Author, “In Words and Deeds: Battle Speeches History”

With the attacks in Mumbai, Fourth Generation Warfare (4GW) has entered a new phase. Like most historical developments, that of Mumbai follows its predecessors while adding new elements. What are the old elements? Like the 1998 attacks on America’s African embassies and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, Mumbai was a stunningly murderous public relations gesture to show the target’s impotence and Al Qaeda’s ubiquity. And the perpetrator is almost certainly either Al Qaeda or an Al Qaeda-inspired and/or directed and/or franchised operation.

And like the attacks on the Pentagon and WTC (and possibly Capitol Hill or the White House) of 9/11, the assault on Mumbai, as befits a well-done 4GW attack, was directed against “soft-target” nodes, that is, targets that are central points in larger networks whose disruption are thought to have mega-consequences.
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By Jon Kraushar
Communications Consultant

As details emerge about how commandos ended the brutal attack on Mumbai, India it will offer the incoming Obama administration — and the world — lessons about the most effective ways to quickly end a terrorist strike on a city and may also suggest longer-term strategies to discourage future terrorist traumas.

President-elect Barack Obama’s campaign declarations on everything from national security to economic security are undergoing severe reality checks day by day.

Under what conditions is it effective to negotiate with terrorists? What anti-terror strategies result in at least limited havoc and horror?
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By Ross Eisenbrey
Vice President, Economic Policy Institute

Editor’s Note: The non-partisan Web site “Opposing Views” offers readers a look at all sides of the debate on a variety of issues. This is part of a series of posts from the Web site that will appear in the FOX Forum.

The problems of the Big Three are not the result of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, which has cut labor costs by billions of dollars.

AP

The problems are the result of the credit crisis, which has wrecked the market for auto loans and made it hard to borrow enough money to buy a car; the spike in gas prices earlier this year which wrecked sales for SUVs; and, the overall economic crisis, which has wrecked consumer confidence, shrunk payrolls by more than a million dollars and left more than 10 million Americans unemployed. All car sales are down, including Toyota’s and Honda’s.

The biggest competitive drag on the auto companies is the cost of a million retirees.

Labor costs are only 10% of the sales price of an average vehicle. But the UAW has done its part to ensure competitiveness. UAW contracts allow the Big Three to hire new workers at about half of Toyota’s $25-$30 an hour wage rate. The biggest competitive drag on the auto companies is the cost of a million retirees -– the result of being in business in the U.S. for the last 75 years.

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By Judith Miller
Writer/FOX News Contributor

If the leaks and rumors emanating from Barack Obama’s insiders are correct, Robert M. Gates will soon be adding an eighth president to the list of commanders-in-chief he has served. According to Gates himself, he knew all but one of the seven well.

Why might President-elect Obama want to retain incumbent Bob Gates as his defense secretary? Because President-elect Obama is not stupid. There are few officials, Republican or Democrat, who have proven as adept at cleaning up policy messes in Washington. Unlike the president-elect himself, Gates is supra-experienced and ultra-savvy about Washington’s bureaucratic ways. In other words, he not only knows where the proverbial bodies are buried, he has probably buried a few of them himself.
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By John Avlon
Author, “Independent Nation”

The Mumbai terror attacks remind a briefly slumbering world that we are in a war against Islamic supremacists. In recent months, the USA has been pre-occupied with an historic election and an historic financial crisis. But the war that was indelibly declared on September 11, 2001 continues unabated, not just against the U.S., but worldwide. So this is a moment for global solidarity — because this is ultimately a war between civilization and the terrorists.

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