Russian Affront

The Russian newspaper Izvestya has attacked the Polish media for articles about Beslan. According to the newspaper, the media present the tragedy "with malicious satisfaction" and attacks on Russia.

Yevgeny Shestakov, author of a commentary accusing Poland of an anti-Russian bias in relation to the tragedy in North Ossetia, says the atmosphere at newspaper reader discussion boards in Poland reveals a different Poland than the one that lays flowers before the Russian embassy and whose president sends condolences to the Ossetian nation. In Shestakov's opinion, Poland is "full of malevolence, permeated by hostility towards Russia." In a Poland like that, the media are filled with "sympathy for Chechen 'freedom fighters'." Shestakov says Russian diplomats believe that "the Polish media deliberately present a distorted image of what is happening in Russia." In his publication, the author explains where this "campaign against Russia" originates. According to him, upon Poland's accession to the European Union, "the Polish media received a quiet order from the state authorities to 'emphasize national identity'," and thus the tragedy in Beslan turned out to be very useful. In other words, Polish "authorities" are misleading the country's neighbors and officially sympathize with them, while at the same time antagonizing the media against Russia behind the scenes.

"The Russian paper's reaction results from inability to understand the essence of freedom of press," said Jan Skórzyñski, deputy editor-in-chief of Rzeczpospolita. "It is the most upsetting accusation that the media in Poland can be charged with. It mentions actions dictated by Polish authorities and that is not true. I regret to say that it seems our Russian colleagues transfer their own experience to our reality, which is totally different to theirs." Skórzyñski admits, however, that Polish reports from the tragedy in Beslan have not been completely free of resentment. "In my opinion, you cannot say that Poles watched the events in Ossetia without taking sides," he said. "The Polish press has devoted a lot of space to the conflict in Chechnya and it is not a conflict in which Poles are totally impartial. Pro-Chechen inclinations are evident in most cases. In Poland, you do not frequently hear the term 'Chechen terrorist,' but rather 'fighter,' even during the attack on the Na Dubrovke Theater in Moscow. But the media have a responsibility to explain events. The fact that the perpetrators were terrorists is indisputable. A country's struggle for independence should not prevent Poles from perceiving the recent attacks as plain barbarism. Here, the ends do not justify the means. The means were repulsive and yet, most comments and reports lack this fundamental view."

"It is noteworthy that Shestakov accused my paper of an anti-Russians bias based on an exchange of readers' views on the online discussion board," said Marcin Bosacki, head of the foreign desk of Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's largest newspaper. "The editorial staff of Gazeta.pl is not responsible for views expressed on the boards. This is a sign of freedom of speech in Poland. Shestakov publishes false facts when he writes there are websites titled 'Solidarity with Chechnya' on the Internet. It is not true. Perhaps someone did publish a comment like that and it is a personal opinion. But it does not mean Gazeta Wyborcza has an anti-Russian bias. I too sympathize with the suffering Chechen nation, but it does not mean I support the methods of people like Shamil Basayev."

The Polish Sejm has not remained indifferent to the tragedy in Ossetia either. On the first day of a plenary session, deputies unanimously adopted a resolution to condemn the terrorist act in Beslan. They observed a moment of silence to honor the victims. The resolution emphasizes that the terrorists committed an act of unparalleled cruelty by murdering children. Authors of the resolution expressed their sympathy for families of the victims and called upon Poles to show solidarity with inhabitants of Ossetia.

Poles are actively involved in helping North Ossetia. Polish Humanitarian Action (PAH) and Caritas are organizing financial and medial assistance for Beslan and the Ma³opolska province governor has invited children-survivors of the attack to spend vacations in the province.

Read an interesting article that was emailed to me today. It may have already been published on FR re the tragedy in Beslan.

NEW YORK POST online edition
WHEN THE KILLERS COME FOR THE KIDS

BY RALPH PETERS

September 4, 2004 -- THE mass murder of children revolts the human psyche. Herod sending his henchmen to massacre the infants of Bethlehem haunts the Gospels. Nothing in our time was crueler than what the Germans did to children during the Holocaust. Slaughtering the innocents violates a universal human taboo.
Or a nearly universal one. Those Muslims who preach Jihad against the West decided years ago that killing Jewish or Christian children is not only acceptable, but pleasing to their god when done by "martyrs."

It isn't politically correct to say this, of course. We're supposed to pretend that Islam is a "religion of peace." All right, then: It's time for Muslims to stand up for the once-noble, nearly lost traditions of their faith and condemn what Arab and Chechen terrorists and blasphemers did in the Russian town of Beslan.

If Muslim religious leaders around the world will not publicly condemn the taking of children as hostages and their subsequent slaughter — if those "men of faith" will not issue a condemnation without reservations or caveats — then no one need pretend any longer that all religions are equally sound and moral.

Islam has been a great and humane faith in the past. Now far too many of its adherents condone, actively or passively, the mass murder of school kids. Instead of condemnations of the Muslim "Jihadis" responsible for butchering more than 200 women and children in cold blood, we will hear spiteful counter-accusations about imaginary atrocities supposedly committed by Western militaries.

Well, the cold fact is that Western soldiers, whether Americans, Brits, Russians or Israelis, do not take hundreds of children hostage, then shoot them in cold blood while detonating bombs in their midst. The Muslim world can lie to itself, but we need lie no longer.

The tragedy in southern Russia occurred thousands of miles from the United States, but, in essence, that massacre happened next door. The parents, teachers and students kept for days without water or food in a sweltering school building before being butchered were our children, our sisters, our wives, our parents.

The mass hostage situation wasn't about Chechen rebels (and at least 10 Arabs) opposing the Russian government. It was a continuation of the universal struggle between good and evil. And there is no doubt which side is evil, scorned though the word may be by our own elite.

How can any human being with a shred of conscience dismiss what occurred in that school as anything less than evil?

The attack in Beslan wasn't about Russia's brutal incompetence in Chechnya — as counter-productive as Moscow's grim heavy-handedness may have been. It was about religious bigotry so profound that the believer can hold a gun to a child's head, pull the trigger and term the act "divine justice."

We will hear complaints that the Russian special forces should have waited — even after the terrorists began shooting children. Negotiations are the heroin of Westerners addicted to self-delusion. Who among us would have waited when he or she saw fleeing children cut down by automatic weapons? The urge to protect children is as primal as any impulse we ever feel.

Make no mistake: No blame attaches to the Russians for the massacre at that school. The guilt is entirely upon the Islamic extremists who have led the religion they claim to cherish into the realms of nightmare.

There will be repercussions. Having suffered the hijacking and destruction of two passenger jets, a deadly bombing at a Moscow subway station and a massacre in a primary school all in less than two weeks, the Kremlin will have learned to rue the day it imagined that there was anything to gain by opposing American efforts against terrorists, whether Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein.

As they inevitably do, the terrorists reminded the world of their heartless barbarism. Even if France manages to beg the release of its kidnapped journalists in Iraq, it has begun to sense its vulnerability. And all Europeans with a vestige of sense will recognize that the school seizure in Russia could easily repeat itself in Languedoc or Umbria, Bavaria or Kent.

An attack on children is an attack on all of humanity.

No matter what differences Western states discover to divide them, the terrorists will bring us together in the end. Their atrocities expose all wishful thinking for what it is.

A final thought: Did any of those protesters who came to Manhattan to denounce our liberation of 50 million Muslims stay an extra day to protest the massacre in Russia? Of course not.

The protesters no more care for dead Russian children than they care for dead Kurds or for the hundreds of thousands of Arabs that Saddam Hussein executed. Or for the ongoing Arab-Muslim slaughter of blacks in Sudan. Nothing's a crime to those protesters unless the deed was committed by America.

The butchery in Russia was a crime against humanity. In every respect. Was any war ever more necessary or just than the War on Terror?

And what will terror's apologists say when the killers come for their own children?

Ralph Peters is the author of "Beyond Terror: Strategy in a Changing World."

Tell me when Russia wakes up to the fact that it has invaded or dominated all of its neighbors in the historically recent past.

And what nation with the means has not? Poland spent 450 years invading Russia. So did Prussia and Sweden, and Germany (modern), Japan, China, Persia, Turkey, Austria, Austro-Hungary, Britian, France.

We here in America invaded Canada, various Indian nations like the Five Nations, Cherokee, Appachee, Creek (who were annexed), Mexico, Hawaii (annexed), Spain (Cuba, Phillipines, Guam, Peurto Rico), Haiti on numerous occassions, and China (Boxer Rebellion, US forces were the main fighting force of the coalition) and this is not counting actions of WW1 & WW2. This is the basic reality of the world...those who can invade, those who can not either allie with those who can or with a bunch of those who can't or become victems of those who can.

We are not a peaceful species, whether it is Chinese, Americans or Zulus you are speaking of.

The Russian empire expanded by absorbing (usually by force) the neighbouring lands and countries. In opposition to a "naval" British empire it was a continental one. The difference was, that its colonies were located not overseas, but just "at hand"

On this I can agree with you. Yes, you are correct, but as I stated, that is the nature of all human societies. In its time Poland also expanded, absorbing smaller principalities, as has any nation in this world. It is human nature. It is a question of what is done under the various rulers, if the people are allowed to exist as before, are absorbed or are exterminated. Of course, as with any nation or empire or republic, this mostly depends on who or what party is in charge at that moment, on the religion at hand and some on the culture/history of the people.

As for Russia, if you are to look back in history of the country, back to even the time of the Kieven Russ, there have been swings in political culture from centralism to decentralism. Though obviously freer under decentralism, the inevitability of revolts or social break downs always swung back to centralism, till it stagnated growth and things swung back again.

This happened under the Communists too. Lenin was a centralist, till it ruined the economy, then he decentralized with NEP. Stalin was an extreme centralist, Kruschov an extreme decentralists, even moving many of the offices of the various administrators to the countryside, to be closer to the people. Breznov and Andropov were centralists while Gorbachov a decentralist and Yeltsin a decentralist bordering on anarchist...so it is of absolutely no surprise that Putin is a centralist. This follows a 1300 year pattern.

Eventually the pendilum will swing back. The US military had a very good manual on the Russian experience in the Caucus and Central Asia, very good read. It went deeply into the history of how Russia first got involved there and why it continued into Central Asia. It all started with slavery by the Chechins who sold to Persia and Khiva. After the Chechins, the Khivans hired others, so Russia marched on Khiva. Some where along the line they picked up the White Man's Burdon idea from the British.

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