Posted on 09/07/2004 9:35:10 AM PDT by xsysmgr
The world began to change on September 1, 2004, the day the Russia-held-captive ordeal began in a little school in a little southern town called Beslan. When it ended on September 4 after an agonizing three-day orgy of Islamofascist torture and slaughter, it changed Russia, much as September 11, 2001, changed America, and in the end, that will change the world.
The Beslan victims were not as numerous as ours hundreds died, not thousands but the national shock is comparable, because their suffering was so great and so prolonged, and because Russia's children were not collateral damage in this attack. They were the chosen victims of the global Islamic terror network, and all Russia watched in horror, day after day, as they were shot, stabbed, raped, and blown-up, along with their helpless parents and teachers, while other little ones perished in slow agony from thirst, dehydration, and heat stroke, inside a Russian school where the water fountains ran but dying captives were not allowed to drink anything but their own urine. Something like 1,200 Russians were subjected to this ordeal; more than a third possibly as many as half are dead, and most of the dead are children, crammed in on top of each other in an explosive-rigged basketball court in a stifling, sealed-up gymnasium in a school where the toilets worked too, but the victims were not allowed to use them. And while it is not yet clear exactly who all the 20-30 Islamist terrorists who tortured and killed these children were, it is as clear here as it was, early on, in Spain that local, homegrown terrorists are not the only ones involved in this carefully planned and viciously executed assault on all that civilized people hold dear. International Islamofascist barbarians with imperial designs masterminded the attack on the children of Beslan, and that has changed everything.
Before Beslan, it was easy for the civilized world's Isamofascist enemies to play and win the old divide, conquer, and sell-out game, easy for Russians to believe that only local, Chechen terrorists were attacking them, easy to believe that America's war on the global Islamic terror network was a separate, unrelated thing, a war that Russia might exploit but had no reason to join, a war that had no connection to the one that Israel is fighting or the one that Spanish voters, like French, German, Belgian, and Canadian voters declined to fight. Before Beslan, it was easy for Russia to join France, old Europe, and the U.N. in a policy of temporarily profitable appeasement, propping up the Iraqi terror master, Saddam Hussein, by exploiting the oil-for-food scam, easy for Russia to make a quick bundle by helping Iranian terror masters develop the nuclear weapons they crave, easy for Russia to join the French-led Euro-Arab axis and its corrupt international court in embracing Palestinian terror masters and condemning their victims.
After Beslan, some Russians will argue that continued appeasement of the global Islamist terror network is the best policy still. After all, some Americans still think so too, but there, as here, it won't be easy to sell that policy anymore. There, as here, some Russians will swallow their grief and vent all their rage against their own government, insisting that official incompetence caused all these deaths. There, as here, some will cling to all the other self-defeating old lies, insisting that local Islamofascist groups have no connection to the international terror network, that anyway, "there is no military solution," and/or that the growing terrorist mayhem is all the fault of greedy Russian capitalists, crude, reckless American "cowboys" or scheming, manipulative Jewish war mongers, and that deals with the Islamist devil are still possible and desirable.
But in the end, these voices of blind bigotry and defeatism won't prevail, because millions of Russians have learned the same hard lessons most of us learned on September 11: That we are at war with a vicious global enemy, an Islamist enemy that hates Christians, Hindus, and progressive Muslims as much as it hates Jews, an enemy that cannot be appeased, bought off, or safely sicced on others; an enemy we must unite to cut down wherever it rears its ugly head, or have our own heads and those of our children cut off by it. This Russian transformation won't happen quickly or all at once, but in the end, it will happen, and it will make Russia a powerful ally again, as it was in World War II, after the Hitler-Stalin Peace pact, like the Munich Peace Pact, proved that pursuing paper-peace agreements and short term advantages by appeasing evil is a roadmap to death and defeat. In the end, Russia will fight with us again, and with our most steadfast allies, England and Australia, as it did in the 1940s. This time, a free Poland, a democratic Italy, and a host of smaller, recently liberated states in Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia will not only join with us but will retain their God-given liberties, after our victory.
Already, Putin is getting the message. In an unprecedented burst of candor, he told the Russian people, "We were weak, and weak people are beaten." Already, he is reaching out a tentative hand, looking for help from us and from the Israelis. Israel will respond, generously, as long as the much-maligned Israeli Right retains its shaky hold on power, and we will too, as long as George W. Bush continues to lead us. And if you think Russia is too weak, corrupt, and divided to repay our generosity, think again. She looked that way in the early Forties too, but in the end, she fought fiercely, and made an essential contribution to our victory in World War II. World War III, the Cold War, is over. We won, and with Russia on our side, we will win what Norman Podhoretz rightly calls World War IV much more quickly than we would without her.
Barbara Lerner is a frequent NRO contributor.
The terrorists must be destroyed.
Unfortunately, John F. Kerry will seek to negotiate with them, like he did in 1971 with our enemies.
What's that? Why must conservatives always try to appease the gods of political correctness and multiculturalism?
Excellent article. I just read it over at NRO. One question. The author talks abotu Russia reachign out to Israel for help. I hadn't heard of this. Anyone have any info? Could it be intelligence sharing. Implications are that Iran could soon face Russia NOT too happy witht he mullahs, and not willing to aid the Iranian nuclear effort.
A "progressive muslim" is one who would actually give Christians a choice to convert, or be killed.
The EU media launched the most extreme brainwash campaign ever, portraying the terrorists as victims and Putin as murder of children.
Wait until those al-qaida backed terrorists meet the 21st century version of Ivan the Terrible.
The world changed on 9/11/2001, the world started to realize Bush and America are right on 9/1/2004. Not to downplay the Russian tragedy but appeasement is the hand maiden of evil. Hopefully lessons were learned so those children did not die for the French ideal.
As our estemed governor would say, "Multiculturalism is divisive crap".
A "progressive muslim" is probably like a "progressive Catholic" - for abortion, for faggotry, for wymyn priests. There are a few of them, probably, living in Switzerland.
Putin likened demands by Washington that Moscow negotiate with the separatists in Chechnya -- where rebels are believed to have planned the school siege -- to the U.S. talking to the terrorists behind the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Another article referenced in that thread also mentions that the people who told Putin that were "mid-level officials in the U.S. government." Note to President Bush: give these rascals the heave-ho. They sound like Madeline Half-bright proteges!
Excellent piece!
Problem is, they already met and defeated him in Afghanistan. I'm not so sure their military is any better than it was back then.
I've seen some articles posted on this--think it was yesterday. You might do a quick search using "Russia" and "Israel." If memory serves, Russia was quick to consult with Israel, and some were wondering if it might be because there were apparently Syrians among the Arab terrorists in the group.
Now that we have the Russian people on our side against the terrorists, we will have to modify our relationship with the Russian people or find ourselves on the opposite side of the fence again as we were(U.S.A.) with them when they were the 'Soviet Union" about Israel.
If the Israelis aren't afraid of the Russians anymore than they are of the U.S. "Manipulation Of The Super Powers by the Middle Eastern Partners" (article not written yet by anyone) It does no good for the terrorists to go after us (Russia/U.S.A.) On the other hand, if we're angry enough at both the Palestinians and the Israelis the Russians will nuke the Israelis and we can nuke Gaza. That way, the U.S. and Russia can become allies and put France in her place.
If Abdul will pray, to a glowing crater.
Well said! A most excellent read.
The situation is different today; the USSR is gone, Russia is back. The alliances have changed, too.
This is an unbelievable development that may leave the U.S., Britain, and Russia again as allies opposed (or obstructed) by Germany, France, and the former WW II occupied countries. Add Israel on our side and the Islamofascists on theirs. Interesting. I have no doubt who the winner of that exchange will be.
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