Looks like FreeRepublic is turning into the Nation, all Soviet/Russian atrocities are explainable, understandable and the fault of the attacked group.
Where did you get this from???
We tried the Nazis and hung them by the score. And I don't see Russians blowing up office towers or theater houses just to cause civilian (infidel) deaths.
No. A decade ago, as we were coming out of the Cold War, many people were sympathetic to the Chechens, and anyone else trying to get out from under Moscow. Clinton and Albright consistently spoke up for the Chechens. And it fit with our overall policy of supporting both Turkish and Saudi foreign policy in the region. The Turks were pursuing their pan-Turkic policy, the Saudis were promoting the return to Islam in the former Soviet republics. Due to our ties and sympathies to both of them, we were prepared to support the Chechens in Russia, as well as, for example, the Uighars in China.
The Uighars are still a relatively sympathetic bunch of people, and I would like to see us continue to help them where we can. But the Chechens have burned their bridges with us, with their tactics of targeting civilians, with their ties to the same Al Qaeda groups that have targeted us. When our guys went into action in Afghanistan, they were fighting not only Arabs and Pakistanis and Pashtuns, but Chechen Al Qaeda fighters as well.
Of course, none of this happens in a vacuum. We have supported Muslim activism in general over the last decade for various reasons. In part it was out of a desire to win it over, and perhaps to use it to our benefit. In part it was due to our loyalties to the Saudis, and perhaps even in part to close business ties between some of our leaders and the Saudis, some public, and some perhaps not public.
In any case, our loyalty and support of Muslim causes has not been reciprocated. The very people we supported have targeted us, and killed our people again and again, in Africa, in Arabia, in America. So in the last year or so we have been forced to reevaluate our relationship with Muslims in general, and the Saudis in particular.
While Al Qaeda was targeting Russians and Chinese, we were quite prepared to support them, even to the point of rather shamefully ignoring attacks on Christians in Indonesia and in the Philippines. But those days are over.
The Muslims have burned their bridges with us. Their atrocities against Russian civilians, and Indian civilians, and Philipino civilians, and most especially against the US has caused us to lose the sympathy we once had. For them to attack Russia and the US at once was supreme foolishness. In the article posted, the writer tries to make their foolishness seem endearing, but there is nothing endearing about people who slaughter even their friends.
The attacked people in this case are the Russians. After Russia granted independence to Chechnya in 1995 the Chechens continued to kidnap Russians for ransom, including large scale hostage situations which killed hundreds of Russians. They attacked police stations in neighboring provences. Chechnya became an outlaw Republic where there was no law or order.
All the Chechens would have had to do to be left alone by the Russians is leave the Russians alone. Like most Islamic terrosts, they couldn't do it. Islamic terrorists are not happy unless they are killing infidels. Thats you and me and the Russians.
If these are the kind of people you support, I would say it is you who reads the Nation.
PS. The Soviet Union was dissolved in 1989. Try to keep up.