How on earth was this supposed to end with no casualties? I would imagine that some of those children were already dead b/c the Muslim terrorists were dehydrating them. Young children die from dehydration quickly.
The only thing that the Russians are at fault here for is their lack of exterminating all of the Chechnyan "rebels".
Bump for truth. All the terrorist sympathizers can pound sand.
Unknown... but in poker the only play would be to "re-raise" the terrorists. Find out their hometowns and make it known to them that if they do not release the hostages within 8 hours, you will raze it - and everyone there - to the ground. Send the heads of their brothers into the building to make the point plain. They might call you on it - once. Then you have to have the balls to actually do it.
The Russians will not make that error again.
"The only thing that the Russians are at fault here for is their lack of exterminating all of the Chechnyan "rebels"."
Wrong. Those remaining rebels need to be persuaded by whatever means necessary to give up information on their associates, so that the Russians can go after some of the active cells that are in place.