BUSH GIVES REBELS HELL: Blames them, not Putin, for theater poison horror

nypost.com ^ | October 28, 2002 | BRAD HUNTER

[Destro]

The White House last night said Chechen terrorists were squarely to blame for the hostage horror in Moscow, declining to criticize Russia's tough tactics in ending the siege.

While 750 people were rescued in the daring raid, at least 117 hostages were killed - all but one from the effects of gas used by troops who stormed the theater on Saturday.

[Allrightnow]

"Lately they've been out-USAing the USA

Good observation, or at the very least Russia seems to be moving further from the left while the US is moving closer. I don't think we should be too critical of the way this was handled; anyone can go back and analyze where a chess match went wrong. This was a tricky situation to begin with and determining the cubic volume of the theatre and the flow rate necessary to quickly put everyone out would be difficult under even the best of circumstances. Someone had to make a tough call and it fell a bit short. What we will never know is how many would have been killed had the Russians not acted the way they did. They may have saved many lives.

[Deb]

How is this not a huge victory for Putin?

[Chemist_Geek]

There were 750 corpses in the theater that night. Russian courage brought most of them back from the dead.

Hear, hear! We all know about the Al-Qaeda terrorist training manual wherein they advise whipping up media frenzy over a hostage situation, then blowing the whole place up.

In this case, the Russians cut that program short. The Russians of late have been a people who are really living up to their potential and have overcome their history.

[demosthenes the elder]

Hrmn... 750 rescued, 117 dead.
By my calculations, that means the Russians redeemed 85% of the hostages. Last I checked, 85% was a pretty good success rate. The fact that they killed or captured ALL of the terrorists should count as extra credit. The fact that they refused to accomodate the terrorists should give them even more extra credit.
How can you call this smashing success "screwing the pooch"?
It was a nasty tactical scenario. Thick walls, limited avenues of access and/or observation, large concentration of hostages, large number of heavily armed perps, and a timeline set by the hostiles. Do you honestly think anyone on Earth could have gotten a better result?

Kudos to the Russians.

We on this site ought to establish a fund for getting those spec-ops people ROYALLY drunk.

[wingnuts'nbolts]

Take note the bottle of booze appears to be full, and it is upright, very suspectly so. However, if the liquor and needles were planted that's ok with me. Folks here have ot remember there are no liberals and whiners in Spetnaz, just guys trained to the nines to do the job. A little military special forces inventive license is allowed. We really don't need any extra incentives to find these animals disgusting and contemptable. But they don't know that!

[Cicero]

I imagine the Russians planted the liquor. So what? If they can detract from the heroic image these murderers will have among their Muslim admirers, so much the better.

Muslim martyrs like to die gloriously and victoriously in their people's eyes. They should be shown for the scum they really are, cowardly murderers and perverts.

[smaug6]

Yep! Just like old Black Jack did in the philippines. Put that on Al Jazeera.