The carnage that ended the hostage crisis at a school in southern Russia is a grim reminder of the abject failure of President Vladimir Putin's own "war on terror."
This, all by itself, tells you exactly where the article is going. The editorialist Tony Karon, aided by Yuri Zarakhovich, seeks to draw a close parallel between Putin's "war on terror" - which, in the writers' estimation, he is obviously losing - and President Bush's, while rigorously avoiding any actual connection between the two.
At least 150 people are reported to have been killed Friday after Russian troops stormed a school where some 300 had been held captive by a group of masked Chechen gunmen demanding that the authorities free their jailed comrades.
This gives the impression that Russian troops rashly stormed the school, precipitating enormous loss of innocent life. But as Debka reports, Russian security chief stated no military storming of besieged school was planned, only continued negotiations. Troops opened fire to save hostages’ lives when terrorists ignited explosives in the gym and fired on fleeing hostages. Trigger that prompted military acction still unclear. So while it's too early to say for sure that Time's account is wrong, we are justified in treating it skeptically.
At least 150 people are reported to have been killed Friday after Russian troops stormed a school where some 300 had been held captive by a group of masked Chechen gunmen demanding that the authorities free their jailed comrades.
But at least half of those "Chechen gunmen" weren't Chechen: Twenty hostage-takers killed, 10 of them Arabs – al Qaeda terrorists, some Saudis, according to Debka, and in keeping with MSM reports as well.
And the latest bloodshed has come scarcely a week after twin suicide-bombings [also by al-Qaeda] brought down two Russian airliners and a third wrought havoc outside a Moscow subway station, leaving more than 100 dead.
Now just in case you're still wondering where all of this is leading, skip down to near the end:
The more important lesson from President Putin's war, of course, is that military means alone cannot snuff out a politically motivated insurgency. Instead, in Chechnya — as, perhaps, in the Palestinian territories — a military response that has left open no political track to more moderate nationalist elements has tended to work in the favor of the Islamists ...
Now as you'll recall, the root cause of the problems in Israel/Palestine is the Israelis' unwillingness to negotiate or to pusue a peaceful solution; and it is the Israelis' heavy-handed tactics that have been solely responsible for the radicalization of islamist elements among the Palestinians. Well, it's the same principle here. What Putin needs to do, of course, is give the Chechen freedom fighters (even if they are Arab al-Qaeda operatives) whatever they ask for. Then, just as surely as night follows day, the Chechens will lay down their weapons and live in peace with their neighbors.
Yeah, right.
