[eclectic]

but very, very EFFECTIVE

Not so in 1994/1995 - Grozny was strewn with corpses of Russian soldiers and burned vechiles. The effective thing is what the IDF does. Puff and no problem - only crispy terrorists!

[Grzegorz 246]

Yes in 94/95 in attack on Grozny Russians lost 100 tanks and other armored vechicles.

[Westbrook]

Yes, Yeltsin was ineffective.

Putin promised to show more backbone in the conflict.

I was in Russia in Jan 2002 and again in March 2002.

What I saw was a scorched-earth war plan.

While the rest of the world was crying about the American surgical bombing campaign in Afghanistan, the Russians were utterly destroying Chechnya with indiscriminate arial bombing raids and artillery shelling.

In one attack I saw in one of their news segments, when the fires in the city went out, they sent the large earth moving equipment to bury everything. I saw no attempt to look for wounded or to count the dead.

Not one peep from the Euro-peons condemning the Russian campaign in Chechnya.