Yeah. It would've been better to have the vermin blow the building and have 700 dead hostages.
Get real. True, there are no "acceptable losses" but there sure as hell are "unacceptable outcomes".
Spetnaz deserve some credit here. They aren't responsible for the event. The Vermin are. Spetznaz did good, and they saved many, many lives. End of analysis.
Well put. This type of outcome, even considering the risk to innocents, is the kind of outcome that puts fear into the hearts of those who would commit such acts. Not because they might die, because they may have been prepared to die, but because they might not be allowed to WIN.
I am not sure we have the kind of guts that Spetznaz had tonight. We have become a country that allows standoffs.
I read on another comment that the Chechens aren't really like terrorists because they have a "real" beef with Russia. Well.... I don't know, and I don't care what their beef is. I am sure at one point the Palestinians had a legitimate beef. But they decided not to play the game in a civilized way. They decided to kill innocents in a shocking way as a stragety in their mission... so the righteousness of their original cause ceases to matter. Ceases to matter at all.