It was a relatively low-tech operation - as few as 10 men armed only with guns and grenades - aimed at soft targets - two hotels, a train station and a Jewish center - that produced spectacularly bloody results: nearly 200 killed, more than 300 wounded and dozens of hostages over three days last week. This was indeed terrorism, but at its most basic level it was mass murder, similar to a shooting spree at a school, restaurant or post office. However, instead of being the work of a lone crazed gunman, the India massacre was on a larger scale, well-organized and apparently politically motivated.

If a disgruntled worker or mentally imbalanced person can walk into a public area and fire indiscriminately, then an orchestrated attack of a higher magnitude would seem to be low-hanging fruit for terrorists. It certainly would be more practical than acquiring a nuclear or biological weapon, or even hijacking airliners and flying them into buildings.

Thankfully, such Mumbai-style attacks are extremely rare worldwide, and so far the United States has been spared. It can't be because no one has contemplated it. We're certainly not giving anyone ideas by raising the issue. Author Tom Clancy used simultaneous terror attacks on several U.S. shopping malls as a plot device in his 2003 novel "The Teeth of the Tiger" (after previously envisioning, years before 9/11, a 747 being flown into the U.S. Capitol).

The possibility of such violence is chilling not just because it occurs in familiar places where we take our safety and comfort for granted, but because there's no technological solution to prevent it. It can't be stopped by biometric IDs, X-rayed luggage or other "homeland security" bureaucratic apparatus. Short of creating a lockdown police state, with armed guards on every corner and metal detectors at every entrance (which would be virtually impossible in a country the size of the United States anyway), the only way to prevent a Mumbai (or Clancy) kind of attack is to have foreknowledge of the event. That's a tall order, especially when dealing with decentralized terrorist cells that are the proverbial needles in haystacks.

Besides, the cure threatens to become worse than the disease - a rollback in civil liberties that fundamentally changes the character of a free and open society. We benefit so much more from it than we suffer from its vulnerabilities.

To that end, if there's a lesson to be gleaned from the India massacre, it's that individuals ultimately are responsible for their personal safety. India has strict gun control laws that make it virtually impossible for private citizens to arm themselves, so they rely on armed professionals to protect them. However, there were reports from Mumbai that policemen at the train station failed to use their weapons to stop the terrorists as they gunned down innocents. How many innocent lives could have been saved had the terrorists immediately faced return fire from an armed populace?

Maybe that's why no one has attempted such an attack on U.S. soil. They know that many Americans would shoot back.

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