Russian school children under seige

[dgatl]

i've never understood the point in hurting innocent people to make a political point

[akwolf]

A couple of question to form a basis for argument: (1) Do you believe that the Chechan people would elect the terrorists leaders in a hypothetically free election? (2) How far back in Russian history do you want to go in this discussion?

I may not respond to your next post for a while. I'm calling it a day. But I'll argue for my position at another time.

[dgatl]

what does that have to do with innocent children?

[ruskiegirl]

A couple of question to form a basis for argument: (1) Do you believe that the Chechan people would elect the terrorists leaders in a hypothetically free election? (2) How far back in Russian history do you want to go in this discussion?

I may not respond to your next post for a while. I'm calling it a day. But I'll argue for my position at another time.

1) I believe they will elect whatever government suits their needs and is in line with their cultural and political heritage as an ethnic group.  If that's a religious oligarchy, fine.  If it's a democracy, even better.  The point is THEY ought to have the right to choose who governs them and how.

2) I am making reference to the aquisition of the micro-states located in the Caucuses mostly during the 19th century, although less organized colonization of that area has been going on for centuries before that.

[Tobias Beecher]

This is a very sad situation and i hope no one gets hurt.

However, Russia started this whole mess when it sent soldiers to brutally suppress the Chechen independence movement in the early 199os.

After all, Chechnya want its own freedom, just like all those other former soviet republics that were forcefully annexed by Moscow [either by the Czar or from soviet times].

[Freak]

Remember what we did when the southern states tried to leave?  We ought to be careful how we throw blame.

[The ZAPINATOR]

It's inexcusable to take children for hostages, or to take hostages at all. 

Anyone who uses these methods deserves whatever they get in the way or retaliation, and they deserve no sympathy for their cause.  Unless it was a last resort and it was the only way they could preserve their own lives.  This is not the case here, so I have no sympathy.

ZAP

[dgatl]

thank God its over

[ruskiegirl]

It's inexcusable to take children for hostages, or to take hostages at all. 

Anyone who uses these methods deserves whatever they get in the way or retaliation, and they deserve no sympathy for their cause.  Unless it was a last resort and it was the only way they could preserve their own lives.  This is not the case here, so I have no sympathy.

ZAP

I don't think anyone here sympathizes with the terrorists themselves.  My sympathy goes out to all the innocent people who are implicated as a result of the conflict.  Many Chechens are so beyond this political warfare stuff -- they just want to have a normal life where they don't have to worry about being harassed by Russian occupying forces, bombed, or shot.  I don't think that's too much to ask. 

But I do agree with you about the terrorists.  Nothing can excuse what they have done to these innocent people.

[WULaw]

Besides, if you are a proponent of democracy, which I hope you are, you would concede that these people deserve to have a government of their choosing, not one that is imposed upon them by their occupying forces.

Why do you call the Russian army occupying forces??  Chechnya is a part of Russia, not a former Soviet Republic.