What would you suggest? Once the terrorists were in the building, heavily armed and bomb laden he really didn't have many options.
Hey. President Bush offerred help. I have a feeling we might have handled things differently. But I'm no expert. Are you?
Putin had no real choice. And you can't protect every target 100%.
The only solution is to let them know that they will suffer consequences beyond their belief. You take one school we take out one city. Period. No discussion. You take out one airplane we take out one city. Period. No discussion.
Is not that Putin didn't have any options, he didn't have time for options.
Had I had the time, I would have put in concentration camps 1000 muslimes for each hostage and let the whole world know that for each child killed a thousands of the muslimes would be killed. I would have also informed the world to mind their own business and not to mess in the internal affairs of Russia. Period.