Onward to India!

Drudge has a headline up this morning about Obama taking 34 warships to India to protect the waters offshore during his visit:

He will also be protected by a fleet of 34 warships, including an aircraft carrier, which will patrol the sea lanes off the Mumbai coast during his two-day stay there beginning Saturday. The measure has been taken as Mumbai attack in 2008 took place from the sea.

Arrangements have been put in place for emergency evacuation, if needed.

Yes we already have a fleet in the region, they are simply moving them to the coast off Mumbai. Previous stories have mentioned 40 aircraft, a Batman-like Lincoln to carry the prez, renting the entire Taj Hotel and even flunkies being told to remove coconuts from the trees above his projected path so he doesn't get bonked on the head. All very secure at about 200 million per day.

But from whom is he securing himself? The Indians aren't enemies and after all, he's going in part to discuss lucrative trade agreements. India is certainly not Pakistan or Indonesia where AQ cells are more rampant...er wait, he IS going to Indonesia later in the trip (so we'll be able to compare the security in that Islamic country versus this Hindu nation). Or is any of this related to his decision not to visit the great Sikh temple?

Or more aptly, is it all just routine?

Very possibly just routine. The world is a place of many threats. AQ has shown over the past two years they are still determined to win. But wait, this is a man who repeatedly said..

"When George Bush steps down," Obama once declared, "the world is going to breathe a sigh of relief."

He was the one who said his own international background and new approach to handling our enemies would reduce their numbers. Not just him though, his Secretary of State said the following after the inauguration:

"There's a great exhalation of breath going on around the world as people express their appreciation for the new direction that's being set, and the team that's put together by the president to carry out our foreign policy goals," Clinton said after telephoning dozens of world leaders in her first five days on the job. "We have a lot of damage to repair."

Unfortunately Hillary could not be reached for comment.

One could take this publicity over massive security to mean they've been slacking off on the job or just garden variety idealist ignorance and arrogance from liberals coming in the door. Some may say they were just words. The trick is figuring out which words represent the truth, sometimes known as a Kinsley gaffe in Washington.

MORE 11/5/10

The left is now having some revenge fun over what appears to be a series of bogus sources fueling these reports about the India trip, well, aside from renting the entire Taj Hotel, which hasn't been refuted. But OK, guilty as charged, some of this is quite ludicrous on its face (like the 200 million a day stuff).

But why is someone leaking this? And who? Has this ever occurred in the past before a major presidential visit where sources in the visiting country tried to kneecap the trip before it started?