Posted on 09/09/2004 10:35:28 AM PDT by aynrandy
Lyudmila Lomakina watched each day with increasing horror.
From her bookshop in southeast Denver, she dutifully followed the news as the hostage crisis in Beslan unfolded on Russian satellite television.
When it was over, she saw bloodied children running for their lives.
The day I met her, Lyudmila would be exposed to even more disturbing images, as the Russian government released video of the terrorists laying out explosives around helpless children.
Many of those kids, we now know, would soon be dead.
If Lyudmila, a Denver resident for 10 years, had any uncertainty about the kind of barbarism the free world faces in the war on terror, it was conclusively cleared up for her last week.
For any of us, the murder of 326 hostages, 156 children - shot in the back and head, blown up and tortured - is simply unfathomable. For Lyudmila, a native of the Russian province of Moldavia and a mother of two children, the carnage was often too excruciating to watch.
Nevertheless, she forces herself to tune in for the gruesome details as they slowly emerge. She makes herself read one of the Russian newspapers that are piled neatly by the door of her store to see the macabre specifics.
She talks about it with her customers, who stop in to buy Russian-language books, DVDs and music from her 7- month-old business.
Most just shake their heads in disgust.
Peter Potapovich, one of the customers who stopped in Lyudmila's store when I was there, has a straightforward question: "Why would they kill children?"
"First airplanes and bombing a subway, now a school, a few months ago the opera house," says Potapovich. "These people aren't thinking about God. They don't care."
Lyudmila's skepticism about politics in general and Russia's future in particular hasn't abated, but the sadness she feels for her native land has swelled considerably these past few days.
"Separatists," "militants," "rebels" or whatever softened designation we in the media assign these Islamic fascists, a no- nonsense woman whose father was an officer in the Red Army sees through the politically correct gibberish.
She has better names for them: "terrorists," "criminals," "animals" and "murderers."
Echoing the sentiments of many of the Denver-area Russians I met, Lyudmila believes that Beslan is "the same for Russia as 9/11 was for the U.S."
Greg Tabachny, who operates a dry- cleaning store on Mississippi Avenue and has been in the U.S. for 25 years, certainly agrees.
Tabachny frames the attack in the context of a greater religious war: militant Islam against the rest of us. Tabachny says that Russia and the United States have no choice but to join in this fight.
"This is exactly like 9/11 for Russia. It's just the beginning. They are on the same side now," explains Tabachny. "Because those people who attack a school in Russia want one thing, they are attacking Christian nations like the United States and Russia."
While events in Russia have shaken most of the people I spoke to, their main concern is America's future.
"I feel safety in this country," Lyudmila tells me in her broken, but sincere, English.
She cherishes the law and order this country provides, the chance to open a business and succeed without bribing the police. She doesn't fear terrorism here. She believes America will protect her.
Russian leaders recently confirmed that they would strike "terrorist bases in any region of the world."
That sort of call to pre-emptive action sounds awfully familiar to Americans and awfully sane to the Russians in southeast Denver.
It makes them feel safe. And after all, that's why they came to Denver.
David Harsanyi's column appears Monday and Thursday. He may be reached at 303-820-1255 or at dharsanyi@denverpost.com .
Waiting patiently for the first condemnation of Russian policy by Bill Maher, Bill Moyers, Danny Glover, Sean Penn, Harry Belafonte...
FYI.. a suggestion...send an e-mail to the author, telling him you read the column on the net, and enjoyed it. They love to get positive feedback. Over the years, I've developed correspondences witht several reporters and editors from around the country, when the responded to my little note of appreciation. One told me that 98% of the e-mails they get are critical..readers screaming at them, complaining..they're human..they like a siple "attaboy"
Will they attack Syria?
Russia?..no..but Israel might..if they have to go into Lebanon, they won't stop till they're in Damascus..
Yeah, but will they do something about it!
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