[nuconvert]

This was the best plan Putin could come up with?

[nyconse]

Let's not get distracted from the real issue here...the need to kill terrorists. I don't think we should blame Putin. He didn't have any good options. The terrorists are to blame for this-not Putin.

[SunStar]

This was the best plan Putin could come up with?

Well, he could have used poison gas like in the Moscow theatre incident...

[Moose4]

From what's been posted here, some hostages decided to try and escape, and when that happened the terrorists started shooting at them, Russian forces fired to provide them some cover, and at least one of the terrorists set off explosives in the gym, bringing the roof down. At that point the security forces didn't have a choice but to move in.

Withhold judgement on the Russian security services until more information comes out. And never lose sight whose hands the blood of those kids is REALLY on. Hint: It's not the FSB.

}:-)4

[mvonfr]

This was the best plan Putin could come up with?

It does not seem that Putin had any good options. Neither will we when the same thing happens here.

[blasater1960]

This was the best plan Putin could come up with?

Yeah, I think the storming was not planned. The medics had brought in an ambulance for the kids and the Islamofascists went nuts and started killing the kids that were trying to escape. Thats one take anyways.

[OldFriend]

Putin is not the criminal, the terrorists are.

[SF Republican]

This was the best plan Putin could come up with I read earlier there WAS NO plan

[pgkdan]

What would you suggest? Once the terrorists were in the building, heavily armed and bomb laden he really didn't have many options.

[EQAndyBuzz]

"This was the best plan Putin could come up with?"

Got a feeling that Putin is going to go KGB on Chechnya.

[george wythe]

There will be enough time for recriminations later.

At this point, I'm too sick to even comprehend which kind of beasts will shoot a little boy or a little girl in the back.

The complete blame for this carnage rests on the terrorists' shoulders.

[ET(end tyranny)]

This was the best plan Putin could come up with?

Don't be a John Kerry and complain without stating what you think he should have done? Details, please.

[GBA]

"This was the best plan Putin could come up with?"

Is there a best plan for people who shoot children in the back? These are the same type of people who strap bombs on kids and send them out to kill themselves and other innocent people. They don't play by any of the rules of humanity. So, assuming you have a lock on genius, what plan would you have recommended?

[Americanwolf]

Well if you have any better suggestion's maybe you could give Putin a call, then why don't you also give some advice on the war on terror to the Bush Administration. It gets real easy when you don't have the presure of the situation sitting on top of you to see all the options and be a critic of what actions were taken. I don't think it is fair that you knock Putin on this... It is the same here.. The adage goes: "The terrorist only need to be right once, The defenders against terrorism need to be right 100% of the time."

The Russian need to deal with terrorism in the same way Isreal does, and so do we. If we negotiate like the French, philipinos, etc that is appeasing the terrorist. Would you perfer that everyone start appeasing terrorist, and then we have to live in fear, or have to combat the terrorism on our streets?

[finnman69]

they just announced on the radio, one of the terrorists blew herself up and that caused the majority of the casualties.

[thoughtomator]

It's the best plan available. How many thousands of others would be sacrificed for the failure to deal with hostage-takers the way one should? Don't you see the connection between the success of hostage-taking in Iraq and the efforts to take hostages elsewhere?

If the results of a hostage situation are a lot of people angry enough to want to kill jihadis wherever they may hide, then it is less likely that future hostages will be taken. If the result is that they get part or all of what they want, it guarantees more hostages will be taken.

[neutrino]

I begin to see where your sympathies lie.

Count me as being on the side of Putin.

[mtbopfuyn]

If you'd been up at 4 am this morning, you'd have known what happened. The soldiers had negotiated with the terrorists that that could take away the 20 or so bodies outside the school (one was a girl). Dogs had been chewing on the bodies but Putin had told the soldiers not to fire at the dogs because it might set off the terrorists thinking they were being fired at. At the request of parents and community, Putin agreed not to storm the school (btw, grade k-11) earlier but to wait and try negotiation. When the soldiers were taking the bodies to the ambulances, the terrorists set off two bombs collapsing the school's roof and a wall. When the wall came down, several children ran out. Some were bloody. Some burned. Most all were stripped down to their underwear either from heat, from soiling themselves because they weren't allowed to go to the bathroom, or the terrorists didn't want them hiding something or it was a form of intimidation. According to one student, at least two women terrorists had dressed in white nurses uniforms (sounds like a planned getaway) and fled amoungst the chaos. Several other terrorists also tried escaping. Helicopters spotted the "nurse" terrorists and they were eventually captured, dead or alive. Meanwhile, the terrorists still inside the school fired at the soldiers and into the crowd of bystanders. Several bystanders and at least one journalist were shot (one father was killed). The soldiers returned fire but more children tried to escape and got caught in the cross fire. The soldiers made it into the school within minutes and killed several terrorists. A few hundred children were taken out by soldiers or escaped. The fire fight continued.

IMO, the only thing the soldiers did wrong was not to clear a perimeter of 3 blocks around the school so bystanders and media wouldn't interfere or get injured.

[DB]

As I understand it, a group of about 30 women and children escaped by themselves suddenly. As they were running from the school the terrorist started shooting them down. The Russian forces started to return fire trying to save those escaping. Then everything fell apart.

That is in no way Putin's fault.

Hopefully Putin will learn something from this regarding Islamist terrorists. He's arming the Iranian terrorists with nukes and that is unacceptable.

[xm177e2]

This was the best plan Putin could come up with?

The hostages didn't have food and water. Waiting it out would only make them more vulnerable when Putin's security forces struck (and that's the only way the situation was going to end--with a battle)

[Travis McGee]

And what plan would you have suggested?