Russian hostage crisis ended
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Russian hostage crisis ended
| Fri, 09-03-2004 - 8:42am |
I have just learned -- not so much thanks to our US news mind you, but the internet about the bloody end to the hostage situation. www.bbc.com has a very thorough article and a time line and some amazingly sad pictures.
My prayers and positive thoughts all go to the people who are suffering in this crisis today. It's heart breaking. Devastating. Why would people hurt children? What's it worth?
I don't understand this world. All I can do is pray for peace and for the health of the families who have suffered today. And for those who have died -- which for now are few. Praying hard no one else dies.
Kelly

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Moreover, Russian responses to previous episodes of terror have been inept, poorly coordinated and probably resulted in needless deaths. In no way, does that mean that I condone the Beslan horror, only that it's important to have a more complete picture than simply saying "these people are evil". Simplistic answers tend to overlook complexities.
My prayers are also with the children, parents and families of Beslan School 1 and the misguided, hopeless and angry Chechans--that they may find peaceful ways to resolve their issues.
Edited 9/5/2004 8:19 pm ET ET by gettingahandle
Gettingahandle
Ignorance is Nature's most abundant fuel for decision making.
See the following: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/international/july-dec99/chechnya_10-25.html
Moreover, some of your words are taboo to a fact-based journalist and you know it. Referring to middle school aged children as "babies" is carrying the emotional issue out there a bit.
Edited 9/5/2004 8:25 pm ET ET by gettingahandle
Gettingahandle
Ignorance is Nature's most abundant fuel for decision making.
Before the crisis ended, Bush offers help
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040901/pl_afp/russia_attacks_us_bush_040901230335
After the crisis Bush offers sympathy:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5906677/
I think it was perfectly plain what the original poster was talking about. Putin himself announced that he felt it could have been handled better - for example there were not even enough soldiers present to remove the wounded who were fleeing - the villagers had to rush in to do it, endangering their own lives in the process.
No-one here is suggesting that Putin is responsible for the carnage - what a stupid suggestion.
Talk about a knee jerk reaction !
alfreda
"Well, I think there were two precipitants; one was the bombing that you just mentioned in Moscow, where 300 innocent Russians were killed and terrorized the city of Moscow for the first time really in this century. The second was when Jamael Basaef and a group of so-called Islamic militants invaded Dagestan, the republic that borders Chechnya, with the intention to liberate Dagestan and to create a greater Islamic republic in the Caucasus. Mr. Putin then, I think, was right to respond. That was a terrorist act; there's no other way to describe it."
You and I simply come at issues from squarely different sides. I see your posts as mostly apologistic, while I admit that I tend not to allow for much in the way of explanations of why people do wrong, bad things. This is a consequence of the fact that I am a parent of very young children, and right now "right and wrong" as a concept is huge in our house. My focus is just not on the various shades of gray in the right versus wrong debate. If my son whacks his sister in the nose because she took his favorite Mighty Bean, we don't have a summit about how she was feeling outcast and unappreciated because she didn't have a Mighty Bean of her own, or about how he was feeling victimized and outraged by the loss of his Mighty Bean. Instead, we get the short version: "It's wrong to take another's things without asking. Please apologize and give back the Bean. It's also wrong to hit, no matter what. You must use your words. Please apologize and take a Time Out."
Now, as for your comment about my use of the word "babies." First, I was not reporting as a journalist when I wrote it, and so I'm not sure why you would use journalistic standards to critique my post. I know I am not alone in calling my own children my babies, even though they are 8 and 4, and they protest vigorously when I do so in their presence. There's this indescribable mother-child thing that happens in the first few weeks, when the baby is so trusting and so connected to the mom, and from then on, they're just always your babies on some level. So yeah, I wouldn't hesitate to call a school aged child someone's baby. And if we had audio of the throngs of mothers outside that school, I guarantee the term "my baby!" would have been heard frequently...and with much anguish.
I don't know who Michael McFaul is or what his claim to fame may be but he blithely overlooked a number of episodes of Russian troop brutality to civilians in Chechnya. Dig deeper and once again, there's a cycle of violence and retribution on both sides--who started it is often difficult to determine. Here's another link to consider: http://www3.sympatico.ca/sr.gowans/hobgoblins.html (emotional but informative). Please note too that the PBS site placed the beginning of Russian conflict in Chechnya in 1994 (for this particular cycle) which is well before the 1999 apartment bombings to which McFaul refers. Here's another link (a bit dry and pedantic but still informative): http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/2000/p30-cwb.htm
Dagestan's "invasion" is dated at 1999. Hmmmmm. Still quite some time after 1994 with that action too. The problem is that the situation is escalating--draconian measures will just accelerate it.
Black and white, in your case, may well be a function of the age of your children. However benevolent a despotcy of your children may be, the fact remains that they ARE children, not fully grown adults. Mature humans are capable of more complex thinking and behavior. Lord knows, I remember the despot days though my children lived them over 15 years ago. I also note that your children have not reached middle school age so you don't yet know the "joys" of adolescence. Maybe that's part of the reason I had a difficult time with the "babies" phrasing. I have a probably imperfect memory of a child rearing author of about a dozen years ago who referred to kids in the fifth or sixth to ninth grade age group as "critters"! They can be a real challenge to live with, however much a mother loves her young. I also got the sense that the use of the word "babies" in your post was to elicit a sympathetic reaction--without seeing that the other side may have had its own terrible tales to tell. But I will agree, wholeheartedly with your comment--"And if we had audio of the throngs of mothers outside that school, I guarantee the term "my baby!" would have been heard frequently...and with much anguish."
Gettingahandle
Ignorance is Nature's most abundant fuel for decision making.
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