I know what you mean...the Arabs are claiming on a link in the CNN website that Israel is behind the child-killing in Russia, all to grow hatred towards Muslims...that it COULD not have been Moslims that killed the children, because good Muslims are forbidden to kill children, EXCEPT if the children are caught in a crossfire with the infidel. Reminds me of the 9-11 one, where all Jews, according to the Arab street, have left the building.

And I see the EU has quick to "win friends and influence people" with Dutch Foreign Minister Bot issuing a statement on behalf of the EU Presidency on the tragedy which concluded: "We also would like to know from the Russian authorities how this tragedy could have happened."

Bot was assisted by German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer who stated in reponse to the deliberate massacre of the Russian children: "The conflict in Chechnya can only be resolved through a political solution. Many people here have been caught between fronts. Both sides have seriously violated human rights. On the one hand you have to fight terrorism, but you also have to promote political solutions."

Nice. Really nice. This is the "future" of Europe? With friends like these....

Maybe if they level the capital now...nope, tried that.

Nice. Really nice. This is the "future" of Europe? With friends like these....

I think people forget that the Chechen rebellion 'as we know it' goes back as far as the 1800s when the Czarist Russia added the Muslim centric province to Russia. People also tend to forget that the independence declaration (1991 it was?) of Chechnya wasn't really well received by the Russian government, afraid that it was (already) losing control over its territory. I remember seeing footage of Grozny, where Russian forces (unable to get a grasp on the situation) literally slaughtered civilians. Back in those days they called it 'suppressing terrorism' too, something that didn't go well over in Europe and America (I think that Europe and America even issued strong words to Russia, but Moscow shoved those warnings aside citing 'internal conflicts and matters').

Now, go back to 2000 where the US gave itself carte blance for pre-emptive attacks against terrorists. Guess which country supported the US and put the Chechnya mess on the same 'fight against terrorism' pile?

I think, to understand the EU's reaction to these kind of events, that you have to look at the past and you will find more consistency in its policy than you will ever see in US politics.

Naturally, I don't agree with the killing of 300+ kids and parents for the sake of any independence fight: Like all of you, I thought it was pretty outrageous.

(Oops, sorry for the long rant).

Not at all - glad to have you back and, of course, you are right. But it makes it so easy to roll all bad stuff together. An easy out is a good out, isn't it?

This is the sort of local twist that deflates uni-conspiracy islamo-fascist theorists. Did the USA give assylum to the directing hand of the Chechyn terror? Cosh thinks so.

And consider this when you think about how inevitable, how perfectly planned it all was.

This bounty must be surely misplaced - Its a Russian coverup! See they think they terrorists in Chechynia are Chechyn separatists. North American Bloggers know better.<p> Amatuer, distant, unable to speak the language, unfamiliar with the history - hey, that's who I'd trust!

Hey - the UK has a Chechen terrorist of their own - Zakayev who was just interviewed on BBC World and described as the right hand man of one of the two ringleaders named by Putin, Maskhadov. The other, Basayev, can find his right hand man in the US of A. So much for the global war on terror. "Global wars" sounds like a problem just starting up.

Just in case anyone is wondering,<blockquote class="smalltext">At the close of World War II, Stalin had the entire Chechen nation exiled to Kazakhstan for alleged collaboration with the Nazis. Khrushchev allowed them to return to their homeland but they continued to chafe under Russian rule. Because Chechnya, unlike the Ukraine or Georgia, had never enjoyed the status of a nominally independent republic under the Communists, the Chechens were denied the right to secede from the Russian Federation after the collapse of the Soviet Union. And so they eventually resorted to terrorism for the limited objective of independence.</blockquote>From today's NYT op-ed, a good essay on the background of last week's massacre in Chechnya and clear reasoning why it was not an islamo-fascist event. Funny...why is it odd to some people that it is not about North America? Why can't we get our heads around the fact that people can be murderous bastards for their own wacked out purposes.