GrampaDave, thought you'd get a chuckle out of this side-by-side salute comparison. I think we can tell which one of these is "unfit" for command.
Posted on 09/03/2004 2:45:31 AM PDT by kattracks
BESLAN, Russia - A group of about 30 women and children broke out of a school in southern Russia where militants were holding hundreds of people captive Friday, a news agency reported, after two loud explosions were heard and Russian commandos opened fire near the building.The Interfax news agency said that the school's roof had collapsed and militants were shelling and firing from the building. Interfax said the hostages who broke out of the school included women and children. It was impossible to immediately verify the reports.
Two helicopters hovered overhead. An ambulance rushed from the scene and CNN reported that at least two people were wounded. On Thursday, the militants inside the school had released some 26 of the hundreds of hostages held inside the building since Wednesday.
I'm engaging this situation not as a "policy" but as a political scenario. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool "neo-con" who's aware that Kerry and his rodents will leap at any opportunity to show the pres. is not winning the war on terror. I think a show of international solidarity will enhance his image, and rightfully so, i.e., contrary to the Kerry campaign, we are NOT in this alone.
That's all I'm saying.
I don't know, maybe I missed it, maybe I didn't read all the message on this thread (I thought I had), but I don't recall seeing anyone blame President Bush for this. I don't even think he's necessarily doing anything wrong--how he responds is going to depend on a lot of things well beyond my knowledge. Thinking out loud--"I hope he mentions it"--does not equate to Bush bashing, certainly not from me--can't speak for Rutles of course.
I saw it that way, too. I've been playing out scenarios in my mind, as well. I've expressed a few of them here, but not all.
I'm as loyal as they come. Let's chalk this up as a misunderstanding, okay? Unity is important even in the Internet arena....
(Sorry about the Ensure "crack")
Let's not be so quick to judge Russian military reaction in these incidents. I cannot recall a terrorist hostage-taking incident in the United States. Who's to say how it would go down. We make many assumptions, but we do not know that it would end any better.....
Good day to you.
The Chechen terrorists are *radical Muslims.* Some have funding and support from wahhabists in Saudi Arabia. The Muslims that are in power / in league with the Russians are usually Sufi or more "liberal" Muslims.
You aren't going to hear *any* of this from the press because the media has adopted the Chechen terrorists as their new poster boys for an "indigenous people's liberation movement." But google on Chechen / Chechnya, Saudi Arabia, and wahhabi, and see what turns up.
Well, it's not a hostage thing, but there was Waco. We know, don't we, how a Democrat would handle something along these lines.
What is with the kids coming out without their shirts, and sometimes without their pants? Was this something the Islamics did to them or commanded them to do, or something the Russian police had them do to assure they didn't have any bombs on them?
We'd better start getting ready. And we'd better start letting people know that we're going to have to be... brusque.
GrampaDave, thought you'd get a chuckle out of this side-by-side salute comparison. I think we can tell which one of these is "unfit" for command.
This just in:
The US State Department has issued a strong rebuke to the Russian Government following Russia's action today and the unfortunate loss of life. Colin Powell spoke today outside the State Department. "We feel that the Russians have not done enough to appease the demands of the Islamic Freedom fighters. If the Russians will only find it in themselves to peacefully negotiate with resistance movements of all races and religions, then we know that tragic events like this will be avoided."
(/sarcasm)
Some whining talking head on TV this morning was complaining that the Russians had no Special Forces teams in the area; that they were all conventional troops who were botching everything up.
Sure looks like Spetsnaz to me.
And you're right. The first thing I thought of after seeing this pic was OKC.
Bush needs to loudly and publicy proclaim our support for Russia in the battle against the Islamofascists.
I really hate people who terrorize children. I hope the Russians kill every single one of them slowly. Child Molestors is what they are; I've worked in the office of a school; noted how the teachers and principals do all of their best to make these kids good. This breaks that sanctity, sacredness of this institution. Even if this was in the Old USSR of Communists, this act is of the lowest I have seen.
Thank you. I don't want to hear any hee-haw either about how Putin didn't help us in Iraq. Many of the Chechnyan terrorists (I *refuse* to call them "rebels") are funded by Saudi Arabian wahhabis. Putin knows who the real enemy is, even if the present administration and our State Department don't.
I too wish we were allied with the Russians in their endeavor to wipe out this cancer on their society.
Most so-called "moderate" muslims silently approve of this... This is why they never protest and you only hear but we are victims too Bwaaa...
By Richard Ayton and Oliver Bullough
BESLAN, Russia (Reuters) - Dozens were killed when Russian troops stormed a school Friday in a chaotic battle to free hundreds of parents, teachers and children who had been held hostage for 53 hours by Chechen separatists. Naked children ran for safety, screaming amid machinegun fire and explosions while attack helicopters clattered overhead.
Julian Manyon, a reporter for Britain's ITV television news, said his cameraman had seen up to 100 bodies in the gymnasium of the school in Beslan, in the North Ossetia region adjoining Chechnya (news - web sites), after the hostage-takers left:
"Our cameraman ... told me that in his estimation there are as many as 100 dead bodies, I am afraid, lying on the smoldering floor of the gymnasium where we know that a large number of the hostages were being held."
The Tass news agency said there more than 400 wounded. Russian news agencies said at least seven people had been dead on arrival at hospital. Rebels fled with soldiers in pursuit.
In the chaotic hours after the battle began, half- or fully naked children gulped from bottles of water after two days without food or drink in a stiflingly hot and crowded school.
"I smashed the window to get out," one young boy with a bandaged hand told Russian television. "People were running in all directions ... They (the rebels) shot from the roof."
It was unclear what had triggered the battle, shortly after Russia insisted it would not resort to force.
The prolonged fighting and scenes of chaos suggested that, if Russian forces had planned to storm the building, their hand had been forced before they were ready.
CONSEQUENCES
The outcome of the siege may have repercussions for Russian President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites), who came to power in 2000 on a promise to restore order in Chechnya after years of violent rebellion and hostage-takings similar to the one in Beslan.
Over 129 hostages and 41 rebels died when Putin sent troops to overpower Chechen rebels who had seized a Moscow theater in 2002. But the violence in the region and elsewhere in Russia has continued.
Tass said troops had blown a hole in a wall of the school to let hostages escape. It also said soldiers were battling gunmen who had fled to the house in the south of the town.
Interfax said some of the hostage-takers, believed to number about 40, had tried to break out through crowds of frantic relatives waiting near the school as special forces moved in.
NTV television said five hostage-takers had been killed.
Officials had said some 500 people were being held in the school in North Ossetia, near Chechnya, but released hostages said the number could be nearer to 1,500 people lying on top of one another in increasingly desperate conditions.
The clashes appeared to have begun shortly after authorities said they had sent a vehicle to the school to fetch bodies. Various reports said this had been followed by a break-out attempt by either hostages or rebels.
Alexander Dzasokhov, president of the province of North Ossetia, said earlier the masked gunmen had demanded an independent Chechnya, the first clear link between them and the decade-long separatist rebellion in the neighboring province. One unidentified woman freed Thursday told Izvestia that during the night children occasionally began to cry: "Then the fighters would fire in the air to restore quiet. In the morning they told us they would not give us anything more to drink because the authorities were not ready to negotiate." WAVE OF ATTACKS Attacks linked to Chechen separatists have surged this month as Chechnya elected a head for its pro-Moscow administration to replace an assassinated predecessor. Last week, suicide bombers were blamed for the near-simultaneous crash of two passenger planes in which 90 people died. This week, in central Moscow, a suicide bomber blew herself up, killing nine people. Russian media have speculated that the gunmen could belong to separatist forces under Magomed Yevloyev, an Ingush who is believed to have led a mass assault on Ingushetia in June. A representative of Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov in London repeated denials of involvement by forces loyal to him and condemned the hostage-takers, saying: "This is a monstrous act ... There is no way to justify what they have done," Akhmed Zakayev told Channel 4 news. Izvestia said 860 pupils attended School No. 1. But the number of people on the campus would have been swollen by parents and relatives attending the first-day ceremony traditional in Russian schools. Up to 16 people were believed to have been killed in the early stages of the assault.
True... It is called Taquiya...
They killed a 3 years-old in Beersheba this week...
Same scum!
"Tass said troops had blown a hole in a wall of the school to let hostages escape."
;)
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