Posted on 07/08/2006 2:55:20 PM PDT by Drew68
SEPTEMBER 1. AFTERNOON. THE GYM. Kazbek Misikov stared at the bomb hanging above his family. It was a simple device, a plastic bucket packed with explosive paste, nails, and small metal balls. It weighed perhaps eight pounds. The existence of this bomb had become a central focus of his life. If it exploded, Kazbek knew, it would blast shrapnel into the heads of his wife and two sons, and into him as well, killing them all.
Throughout the day he had memorized the bomb, down to the blue electrical wire linking it to the network of explosives the terrorists had strung around them hours before. Now his eyes wandered, panning the crowd of more than eleven hundred hostages who had been seized in the morning outside the school. The majority were children, crouched with their parents and teachers on the basketball court. The temperature had risen with the passing hours, and their impromptu jail had become fetid and stinking with urine and fear. Many children had undressed. Sweat ran down their bare backs.
His eyes settled on his captors. Most of the terrorists had left the gym for defensive positions in the main school building, leaving behind a handful of men in athletic suits or camouflage pants. These were their guards. They wore ammunition vests and slung Kalashnikov rifles. A few were hidden behind ski masks, but as the temperature had risen, most had removed them, revealing faces. They were young. Some had the bearing of experienced fighters. Others seemed like semiliterate thugs, the sort of criminal that had radiated from Chechnya and Russia's North Caucasus during a decade of war. Two were women wearing explosive belts.
continued. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at esquire.com ...
I while back I read part of a report on the soldiers who entered the school. Seems that heroism knows no national boundries.
The New York Times and the democrat party works ceaselessly to place the American people in identical danger. IslamoNazis would mass murder like this in a heartbeat in the USA, stopped only by the Republicans and the US Military.
We are at the mercy of these elitist America haters as much as we are at the mercy of the terrorists.
The democrats remain in total denial that we are at war. EXCEPT when it comes to overt treason in aforementioned war, i.e.: The New York Times' endless destruction of our critical intelligence gathering abroad.
They acknowledge there is a terror threat, long enough to demand more more more money.
It could happen here.
Agree!!!
When I saw the breaking news on Beslan, that was exactly my first thought. I hate the thought of our schools being locked down like prisons but I fear that an attack will happen and our schools will be locked down after that.
Everyone should read this!
Remember 9-11.
Remember Beslan.
During the 1990s, many schools starting implementing more security. I remember when you could freely walk into a school to use the restroom and nobody batted an eye. Heck, I can recall my high school during the 1980s where the school library was a *public* library and anyone in the community could enter and check out books and freely roam the halls!
Those days are long gone.
The thing about Beslan is that the terrorists were fighting for a cause --Chechen Independence, a cause that had many mainstream supporters. The massacre at Beslan destroyed a lot of support for this cause.
Our terrorist enemies are a little different. They are fighting for the destruction of Western Civilization. For them, killing schoolchildren would not have the same negative repercussions as it did the Chechens. These types of terrorists would kill children and have no problem with it as it would serve their cause well.
Thanks, Drew.
I spent the hour just now and read it. Very good article (gripping).
After read it through, I agree. Gripping. Hope the author gets the nonfiction Pulitzer prize for writing it.
This picture touched me deeply when it was first published. I call it the "Beslan Madonna."
They won't think it is such a good strategy when we start killing their children in return.
Recommend clicking on the more eye-friendly printer version.
Sadly, these animals seem to have no problem with their own children being "martyred" to Paradise.
That would be well deserved. This is one of the most memorable pieces of non-fiction journalism that I have ever read.
I looked up some pictures of Beslan on Google and I can't believe how young many of the victims were. They weren't even teenagers capable of contemplating resistance. So many of them appeared to be children under 10 years old who had no understanding of the political events that led to this horror.
Whenever I hear news of alleged Russian heavyhandedness in dealing with Islamic terrorists, I will always remember Beslan.
Bump for l8tr
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