Dejavu "School shootings"?
That the first responders(both local police and hotel staff)took casualties,and to some extent kept the perpretators from taking large numbers of hostages,speaks well of their sense of duty, but ofcourse highlights the lack of adequate equipment/training/tactics.
The moving 1st person account by a cabin crew member(in the cabin crew forum) of the same NWA crew(he mentions having to leave the Capt behind)shows how hotel security and local police(now armed with automatic weapons)leads them to safety within a couple of hours of the event having started.
It is unlikely however ,that first responding local police forces in many cities(Including in the west)would have had the firepower required to pin down a similar attack within the short time in which they caused the max innoccent casualties by opening automaic fire in crowded locations(numerous US school shootings being case in piont)
The equivalent of Swat teams (the NSG) were on site in about 6 hours and conducted their operations over the next couple of days without causing any hostage casualities(using deleberate single shots despite having automatic firepower)but taking a couple themselves.
Hard questions are being asked by the Indian public of their politicians,and heads have already rolled.An effort is also being made to channel the public pain and anger caused by this outrage,to ensure actual steps on the ground.
These steps should hopefully see a better preparedness to respond to a similar crisis.
But more importantly,Global Efforts are called for,to prevent it from ever hapening agian, by properly investigating this event and nailing the problem at its source.
And if we pause to think,like in the west,these acts are by troubled young people,only in this case they (like countless others)have been manipulated by medival organizations who want to drive the world back to the middle ages.
If these guys manage to get hold of a nuke next time,it will take more than a rescue flight/delusional notions of sovereignty(of the state from where these"non-state" actors operate) to keep clear of the radiation fallout around the globe.
Perhaps then the survivors will get to address real issues like Global Warming and Hunger(hope not!)