[spetznaz]

The Chechens turned to the Islamic fundamentalists and welcomed veterans of the Afghan struggle. Money from Gulf states spread a form of Wahhabi fundamentalism which the country had never seen before. This has led to the scenes in the Moscow theatre - women in chadors with explosives strapped to their waists, like extras from a bin Laden extravaganza. I recognise the old urge to scare, but this time it has gone into overdrive. However, I must lay some of the blame on the West for abandoning the Chechens to the mercy of the Russians

Hmmmph!

I hope that the Russians crush these terrorists (oops, separatists). Any group that will join with Al Queda deserves whatever is coming to it!

[Vidalia]

But, but, but the Democrat Underground is blaming Wellstone's death (and that of his wife and kiddo) on Pres. GW Bush and the Republicans...

[2banana]

Under Stalin, the whole Chechen population was deported to Siberia and the steppes of Central Asia, where hundreds of thousands died.

It seems like this was the only solution that worked. Seriously...

The Chechens would be cast in a much better light if they would stick to military targets, treat prisoners humanely and kill the criminals posing as "rebels"

I am also amazed that the Germans got very close to Gronzy during WWII.

[arthurus]

Solzhenytsin had much the same things to say about the Chechens he met in the gulag. They were the only eople the Russians were unable to break psychologically. They were exempt from much of the harrassment in the camps because they were untouchable. They were immune to any sort of brainwashing.

[weikel]

Stalin had little problem with them after his gauntlet fell. Re deport the lot of them to Siberia.

[gridlock]

However, I must lay some of the blame on the West for abandoning the Chechens to the mercy of the Russians.

They have sought help in the only place they could find it. It was a poisoned source,

Bullsh!t

Strapping explosives to yourself to blow up a theater full of innocent people is wrong. It doesn't matter who you turn to for help. It doesn't matter what the ideology. It's just wrong. There is no need to be sympathetic with the root causes of such brutal insanity.

If the Chechens were not inclined to do such things, they could not be convinced to do so. The Islamabomers found a fertile field in Chechnya, because the people there were of a similar mind-set. Not to defend Stalin, but do you suppose he might have had a reason to go through the trouble and expense of exporting the entire population of Chechnya to Siberia?

These are the Fruits of Islam. They have them there. We have them here.

[Tuor]

Ten years ago, there was little deeply Islamic about them. The high Caucasus mountains were converted to Islam only in the 16th century, and their law was that of the tribe and the clan, not of the Koran and the Sunna. No woman went veiled.

Too bad many people, including many here on FR, will not realize the above fact. It saddens me the way statism has taken over the site, so that The Law, lawfulness, and obedience to authority is more important than freedom, liberty, and what is right.

I have supported the Chechen's attempts at freedom ever since I heard about their plight. I wish them luck in their attempts to regain their long-lost independance.

The worst thing we can do in this situation is to provide *any* aid to the Russians against the Chechens. The Chechens would not forgive or forget that, and they are *much* more nasty than the Saudi Muslim terrorists.

Tuor

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

However, I must lay some of the blame on the West for abandoning the Chechens to the mercy of the Russians.

Of course it's our fault.

[struwwelpeter]

But the women there are sooooo sexy.

[struwwelpeter]

But the women there are sooooo sexy.

[ijcr]

This ranks up there with 10 foot tall Afghans,the mother of all battles, and Islam is a religion of peace!

Danger Finder said "Chechnya is a self-proclaimed republic in Russia with a population of 950,000 people lying just to the east of the principal road crossing the central Caucasus, ranging from the plains and foothills into the alpine highlands.


Its neighbors are Dagestan to the east, the Turkic-speaking Kumyk people of Russia to the north, the Ingush to the west and the southern Ossetians and Georgians to the south. Grozny is the largest city and capital with an official peacetime population of about 400,000, depending on how severely it's getting pounded at any given moment.

After they were repatriated by Kruschev in the 50's the Chechens, hardened and without any means of earning a living, set about forming the largest criminal gangs in the former Soviet Union.

The Chechens were as far from the Marxist, there-is-no-God, one-size-fits-all Soviet model as a people could be. Why? First, Chechens aren't even Chechen (they are Nuokhchi, or sons of Noah); they speak a unique language- Nakh; they are Muslim.

More importantly they have kept their national identity intact. Chechen loyalties are to one of the more than 100 teips, or clans, that constitute Chechen society, not to the fat-bottomed thieves in the Kremlin. Think of teips as similar to the city states of Athens."

From Janes "Belarus, Ukraine and the separatist Trans-Dniester region of Moldova have all shipped arms to Chechen rebels and the Taliban despite their protestations of support for Russia’s continuing campaign with separatists and Islamic fundamentalists.

Belarus, one of the most secretive and irresponsible arms exporters, has secretly supplied arms to Chechen rebels via Turkey and Georgia.

According to both US and Israeli intelligence sources, Belarus has also turned itself into the largest supplier of lethal military equipment to the Islamic world. In the first half of 2001 Belarus exported US$500 million worth of arms to Arab, Palestinian and Albanian Muslim extremists."

[Solon]

For the Chechens, the right to their own state goes without saying, but the Kremlin refuses to let them secede from the Russian Federation.

Perhaps this author should ask some of the ethnic groups of Dagestan their opinions about the right of secession for Chechens - the ones that fought bravely in defending their villages against the brutal incursions into their land by Chechens - not once but twice. Their dead = inconsequential?

Doesn’t attempts at territorial expansion somewhat negate this 'absolute' right to secede?

[monday]

"However, I must lay some of the blame on the West for abandoning the Chechens to the mercy of the Russians."

To listen to this guy you would think that the Russians would be down there raping and killing wither the Chechens were kidnapping and killing people or not? He's an idiot and probably ought to be shot along with his murderous Chechen buddies.

[Cobra Scott]

"Chechnya is a great oil-producing region, and Moscow wants control of its pipelines."

I get so sick of "its all about the oil" mantra.

Certainly, petroleum has much to do with national interests. As does arable land, water, strategic location and even national pride.

But the above is a clue that the author has no clue. Because one very large Uranium deposit is in the mountans of Chechnya. If Chechnya gained independence, it would join Afghanistan as a third world Islamic ****-hole with a huge source of fissionable material; a material as valuable for fuel as it is for weapons.

[swarthyguy]

What this idiot forgets to mention is that this is the second chechen war after the breakup of the USSR.

THe peace treaty signed by Lebed was thrown in the trash by the chechens as they signed on to the Saudi worldwide jihad, attacking other muslim groups in Dagestan and Ingushetia in order to create a sharia khalifa in Russia's south.

People forget there was peace until our Saudi friends raised the temperature there. He's half right but so much is missing from this article.