No! the Mumbai massacre and hostage crisis

Now marks the 38th hour of a terrorist takeover in Mumbai, a western coastal city-- India's financial capital off the Arabian Sea.

I'm two hours away by flight in Delhi. In the past 8 years Delhi has seen similar human heists and terrorists blasts -- but nothing as targeted at Mumbai, where jean-clad gun-masters have shot more than 80 Indians and a clutch of Westerners. At least 100 people are dead.

Americans, British, and Jews are under unique attack. The terrorists, more than a dozen of them, are checking passports. But in India, now is a bad time to be a civilian, no matter your nationality. And across the world, as belligerent acts of political violence spikes, we are all on alert.

Yesterday, when phone calls from concerned family came at dawn, a wave of pain came over me. I was just in Mumbai 3 weeks ago. And everytime I shop in Delhi, a friend can point to every pillar and post where a body was blown to parts by blasts that struck a week before I arrived in Delhi.

In Mumbai, I was reporting at a women's business conference at a hotel that shares a name with the Taj Hotel now burned and blood-splattered. The Mumbai terrorists attacked the Taj Hotel and the Oberoi Hotel, a train station, restaurants, and a hospital.

Learning of the carnage in Mumbai, I couldn't help but think of the spirited and determined employees of the Taj Lands End where I was covering a conference. I couldn't escape thinking that people just like them -- warm, surviving, everyday people--put on their clothes for the day, said goodbye to their homes and families, entered their jobs, and faced the worst consequence for engaging the world.

For the rest of the day, I joined colleagues and friends, in angst and fear, debating who to blame for this terrorism; if we should launch a war of arms, or a war of silence -- refusing to grant the terrorists their limelight.

Either way, when will we see that our policies now, our state actions now, have failed us, have failed to reduce terrorism? When will we start thinking alternatively and passionately? When will we say No!