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.
Could someone give me a breakdown of the casualties?
Out of 350 dead:
How many of those were Islamic terrorists?
How many were innocents?
How many innocents did the Islamists kill?
How many of the innocents were killed by friendly fire from the Russian police?
THANKS.
There is much evidence that some of the jihadists are trying to usher in a world caliphate, a muslim ruled theocracy over the entire world, adminstrated by sharia law. There have been websites with current muslim conquests, and ongoing conquests, and future quests, where all the world is ruled by a muslim theocracy.
The latter sounds impossible. In America, people would rather die than live under such a system. I am guessing Australia would do so too.
But I am not sure that is what has to happen. Most ofthe attacks, especially 9-11, have attacked economic symbols. Stating the obvious, but if the jihadists did nothing more than conquer all of the middle eastern states, and those states south of russia, that controlled probably more than half of the world's oil exports, the limited muslim theocracy could rule the world through economics. How long would it take for America to abdicate its support to Israel when the price of a gallon of gas was $75.00? 50 years ago, I would have said probably never, now, I am not sure that there aren't enough people to place their own economic comfort against the security of Israel.
If anyone has any articles, books on this issue, I would be interested in seeing them.
................Church bells to ring throughout the whole world.
"The older pupils were forced to carry desks to barricade the windows. When the assault started one of the bandits shouted 'I'll save you'. Everybody ran towards him and then he blew himself up, killing many people."
Out of 350 dead:
How many of those were Islamic terrorists? not enough
How many innocents did the Islamists kill? too many
A "progressive muslim" is one who would actually give Christians a choice to convert, or be killed.""
A "convert" to Muslin would still be treated differently. They would never be trusted. Look at the "converts" to ANY other religion or cult. They never quite "belong".
I wouldn't trust one word out of a Muslims mouth. If I need gas and I find myself in a Muslim establishment, I buy the absolute minimum I can get away with to get to another gas station. BTW- every bust in LA area of gas stations that were watering down their gas or selling a lower grade as a higher grade were in Muslim owned/operated stations. Thieves- every one of them. I don't trust ONE SINGLE word out of any of their mouths. I feel like I am a target whenever I am near one, and I feel they are laughing at the naive Americans who welcomed Muslims into USA and they are either sending $$$ to groups plotting against us, or they are doing the plotting themselves.
Negative- you decide. I just feel I have a stronger sense of survival than most people under 40. After 9/11/01 and 9/1/04, these monsters have proven they cannot be trusted. They are raising more and more monsters. They all need to be eradicated from the earth, and they have showed us why.
Anyone who doesn't believe that, I suggest they be the front line "negotiators" when more crap is hitting the fan. As the blades fall upon their necks, perhaps they will realise how naive they were.
Those terrorist have NO SOULS!!!""
Isn't that redundant?
Tell me what terrorist you believe does have a soul, Please.
All the propaganda fed us then, is being proven wrong at the Hague by Milosevic
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1207954/posts
They leave the baby-killing / raping / torture to others and try to wash the blood of innocents off of their hands.
The news media is their greatest ally.
You know I have to take issue with the whole 'world changed on 9-11' angle that I hear more and more on forums and on documentaries and news programs.
In fact, it was the same world on 9-10 as it was on 9-12. The difference was that the US felt the damage that other countries had been feeling for decades. The US may have got a 'wake up call,' or maybe it was 'gut check' time, but the whole 'world changed' talk is nonsense.
That mindset is pervasive - it really demonstrates American's arrogance more than anything else. Other nations suffer terrorism on their homeland and for the USA, it's largely business as usual for the typical American. Finally, the natural progression of events hits the American homeland and all of a sudden 'the world changes?'
That is a self centerdness that many in the world, for all their problems, has the clarity to see. It isn't flattering. Much of the American post 9-11 reaction has been rooted in self pity and self centeredness. To anyone with an ounce of clarity it's obvious.
The world didn't change. The US was kocked upside the head by reality. To suggest that this somehow changed the world doesn't help our image around the world.
Because the ones doing so are not "conservatives," but CINOs. Despite the disagreement of the republicRat bots on FR who place party above philosophy and country.
countdown to pre-emptive strike started long ago - while there's life there's hope ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/994313/posts
Unfortunately it probably didn't change the world. The world has a very short memory that's very good at forgetting unpleasant things. The world has already forgotten the Holocaust, is deep into the process of forgetting 9/11, and will begin forgetting Baslan in a couple of weeks. Some will remember, but in the end most will get on with their life, that's how the world works.
All good points. I agree.
BTTT
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.