My perspective? On the nonsense that the FSB would purposely destroy a school full of children so that South Koreans would burn pictures of Basayev? Even Stalin or Hitler wouldn't have had the stomach. And it is all risk with no gain. I rate it in believabilty right next to the rumor about Mr. Putin and the apartment blasts in '99.
Yes, I've read a popka-load of information, from various sources, with footnotes and afidavits and blah blah blah.
Still dermo.
Lots of people believe it - that's their right as a thinking individual who ingests information and spits out threads.
President Putin is not a saint; no one in politics is 100% holy. If President Bush can find God in his later years, I'm sure President Putin can also rediscover his religious roots. It's too much work to be an act.
Mr. Putin does a lot that is not in America's interest, but so what? Russia's not allowed its own foreign policy? When did it become a satellite?
I say the same when Slavs criticize Bush. Yes, he does things not in Russia's/Ukraine's/Kazakhstan's/wherever's best interests, but it's because he's president of the United States. Our interests and another country's don't always concide (though I believe that what's good for the US is almost always better than the alternative for the rest of the world).
Mr.Putin is president of Russia, and he does what is best for his people. Yes, he's making the Ayatollah's atomic, he fought us tooth and nail over removing Saddam, yes he sells MiGs to Venezuela and missiles to whoever'll cut a check. It's in Russia's interest to keep the US down. A sad fact, but the US every now and then elects a Clinton who blows up yugoslavias for no reason. Why should any country figuratively bend over without insurance? If you saw a scrofulous scumbag like John Kerry "running neck and neck" in the elections, you'd be building missiles and looking for allies, too.
Back to the main point: FSB planned the tragedy? 100% crap. Probably not resolved as slick as it could have been, but recall how the Germans punted the Munich Olympics disaster.
It's wrong to flame and hate anyone who has another opinion about all this, however - Free Republic is where we sort it all out ;-)
It's not my contention that FSB "planned" the tragedy but rather that they triangulated it to their goals. Chechnya has been a thorn in Putin's side since he gained office and what concerns me is that he has a definite need for a warm-water port to export oil. And the Caucasus come back in to play again.
It's wrong to flame and hate anyone who has another opinion about all this, however - Free Republic is where we sort it all out ;-)
I agree wholeheartedly. And that's why I'm glad you're here. Sort of (here being figurative).
Question: what's the over/under on the guns v. oil prospects in the daily news?
=== And it is all risk with no gain.
How come this logic is not applied to the Muslim fundies who lose everytime every time a Victim Nation gains carte blanche to prosecute as they please the (Holy) War on (Islamic) Terror?
What, exactly, in the history of the FSB since its inception leads you to believe they are somehow beyond slaughtering children?
After all, we're talking about "civilized" nations who yet sanction the dismembering and scalding of children alive in the womb ... however earnest is their propaganda that abortions be "reduced" in nations like the US where it is the most common elective surgical procedure in the land.
Back to the main point: FSB planned the tragedy? 100% crap