ARLINGTON, Va. (JTA) — The attacks on Mumbai crossed a threshold for terrorist attacks, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff told a Jewish audience.
"The images of 2-year-old Moshe Holtzberg soon after his parents were mercilessly struck down in Chabad house should not ever leave us," Adm. Mike Mullen told the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs at its Dec. 8 dinner, referring to attacks in the Indian financial capital last month that targeted westerners in general and Jews in particular, and left nearly 200 people dead. "We are working to prevent Nov. 26 from becoming a tipping point toward chaos in the region by confronting once again a common enemy."
The attacks "crossed a new threshold," he said. "Their level of tactical sophistication with GPS and Blackberries and satellite phones matches only the indiscriminate nature of death and destruction they caused — and yet they intended far worse."
JINSA awarded Mullen its Henry M. Jackson Distinguished Service Award, named for the late Washington state U.S. senator who advocated for a robust U.S. military posture abroad.
