Attackers seize Russian school

[lightblue]

Most schools will have windows though, so I doubt gas would work as well as the theatre which did not have windows, but whose air was circulated via air conditioning.

[Arrian]

Poor kids. This is going to end badly.

-Arrian

[MalevolentLight]

You know I don't know why Russians are so at odds with americans. You have your own islamic problem just as we do and yet you still oppose us going into iraq? How many children did Saddam kill? How many people did he kill? We violated international law by going in? I think not. We had 14 broken resolutions and a long history of crimes against humanity committed by Saddam to provide plenty of justification to remove him. Russia would be so much better off if they worked with the US rather than fighting us. It makes no sense to me why a country that could obviously benefit from cooperation with the US (especially economically) still opposes us while their children are being killed by the islamic threat.

[lightblue]

Saddam was hardly an islamic extremist though whatever Bush/Blair and co say now. The Baathist party was more authoritarian/fascist if anything.

[MalevolentLight]

I never said he was an islamic extremist, but there is plenty of evidence that he worked with them. Saddam is just one piece of the problems with the middle east. Iran and Syria will be next until the Islamic extremist plague has been wiped out.

[BeBMan]

Sorry to hear about that, I hope the hostages can be saved.

Just one thing - it seems women play a bigger role amongst Chechen terrorists than in the ME, or am I wrong? Are there any reasonable explanations why this is the case?

[Az]

Just one thing - it seems women play a bigger role amongst Chechen terrorists than in the ME, or am I wrong? Are there any reasonable explanations why this is the case?

Well:

a) we have our share of female *******s.
b) One could attribute it, ironically, to the relative liberation of the chchen women.

[MalevolentLight]

I'm guessing the use of female homicide bombers will become more and more of a trend. My prediction is that if democracy in Iraq fails and more attacks on the US and other nations occur in increasing number that sooner or later the world is going to lose patience and clean house.

[Pekka]

Oh man.. what a thing to do. It's getting really hard to like them. Messed up.

Well, here's to hoping no one gets hurt.

[Gatekeeper]

This will probably end badly. Perhaps Russia should ask for some heavy U.S. air support. Would our daisy cutters do any good in the Chechen mountains?

Of course, that'd only further radicalize the nutcases. There's simply no winning, it seems. Perhaps it's coming down to the wire — that stupid "war of the civilizations" that some seem to be hellbent on pushing for.

Gatekeeper

[Solver]

This will probably end badly. Perhaps Russia should ask for some heavy U.S. air support. Would our daisy cutters do any good in the Chechen mountains?

Not logical. Russian army certainly isn't much weaker than the American army, and Russia isn't going to ask America to bomb its territory anyway. And really, Russian gunship helicopters and bombers aren't as high-tech as American ones, but not worse.

Besides, there are MANY extremists hiding in mountains. That's a hard situation to wipe them out from. Couldn't be done in Afghanistan, can't be in Chechnya.

[Solver]

Damn it. Those motherfuc*ers are also holding infants hostage, among other children .

The forces failed to come to an agreement regarding supplying food and medicine (needed to some teachers).

[Sandman]

Saving the children should take priority over storming the school to look tough. If the Russians fancy their chances at a successful assault, then by all means go for it.

If an assault can't be carried out successfully, then don't do it. Negotiate, let it drag out. The children's lives are top priority.

An attack that sacrifices many children in order to look tough; that's just a martyrdom operation. No different from how the terrorists think, if you ask me.

[GePap]

re: Russian and military help- the Russians have more than enough raw firepower to turn chechnya literally to glass. US military aide would make little difference.

[Agathon]

I saw on the news that Vladimir Putin had cut short his holiday and returned to Moscow.

The odd thing is that whenever something like this happens, Vladimir Putin cuts short his holiday. He seems to be almost permanently on holiday. Does this man ever work?