I’m upset about this too (seeing as I have 4 children of my own and can very well imagine the pain these parents are going through, having lost a child of my own in the past), but read what I say next time before flying off the handle AT me, ok? I was asking a question, not making a statement…there is a difference, see?
-XT
I just took a quick unscientific scan of news websites…from Karachi to London and Washington, teh predominant term is ‘militants’. Which is non-comittallly descriptive. Fox News was the only mainstrean source I could find that used ‘terrorist’ - and even they tired of it after a couple of paragraphs, also reverting to ‘militant’.
There seems to have been more TV coverage of this one Russian town in the past 3 days than of the whole Chechen war. If the cameras had been there, you’d have heard the same heartbreaking tales from Chechen kids, of their experiences at the hands of ill-equipped under-prepared Russian troops.
Yes yes… 
And the time is… heading to daylight. Time to switch off PC and search a bed.
Salaam. A
I know more then enough about the situation there. I have a niece in Russia and she does more then only attending the univ.
Salaam. A
The last thing that a typical Russian resident will get from their media is an objective (or remotely realistic) description of the situation in Chechnya.
Where do I say she is Russian??? She studies Eastern European languages and history. (The Russian univ.- time is part of that education).
Salaam.A
“Russian resident” != “Russian”
Forgot: I do not exactly need to rely on my family to gather information. Yet she gets it out of sources I can hardly come in contact with, not being at the rigth locations and circles.
I say she is there at the univ. That does not make her a “resident” but a student coming from an other nation being a few months a year n Russia.
Clear now?
Sorry now I’m going to bed before I see the sun rising.
Salaam. A
Non-capitalised ‘resident’, therefore not a legally- or nationality-bound term. just means she’s living there.
Anyway, what’s the point in this? Does she have extra information on Chechnya and on the causes of terrorism within Russia that will advance the discussion?
So then, deliberately killing children is OK, with you? This is way beyond any battlefield confusion or fog of war excuses, these animals deliberately singled out a school full of children for targets. Anyone who would justify this makes me sick.
Attempting to understand their behaviour does not necessarily mean any justification is being sought. Revenge is probably the best simple description of the motives for this attack.
The common thread is a mindset that has run it’s course in history many times. It is a subject that will be lived-with and debated-over for decades to come.
The primary goal is terror, taking hostages is the means to that end. It is not mutually exclusive to include the discriptor “hostage taker” to better explain what is going on. But ultimately, this is a terrorist act In Spain, the goal was to alter the election through terror. The used bombs but ultimately they were terrorists.
Sorry, but you still haven’t explained exactly what this common thread is. And if it’s so obvious, why is it repeated so frequently?
As I said some way up there ^ , ‘terrorist’ is now a political term. Political terms should be avoided by news reporters wherever possible. Here’s one British newspaper’s style guide’s advice:
That’s your interpretation of the events. Not the final word.
It’s the Ostrich Syndrome!
Just hide your head in the sand and ‘maybe’ it will go away.
Don’t count on it. Terrorism is here to stay for a long while.
Do you know what “The fifth column” is?
It is here!
I do not consider them to be patriots, rebels, freedom fighters, guerillas, “brave warriors”, or anything like that. They are animals.
100s of children deliberately killed is a whole new level of terrorism (is the word terrorism adequate? it’s an atrocity) and this is going to be for Russia what 9/11 was for us - it will permanently change that country. Remember 9/11 launched not one, but *two * wars in this country. I don’t know what the Russians will do, but a lot of blood will spill.
My gripe with the media isn’t that they don’t call it terrorism - it’s that they don’t get how enormous this is. What have I watched on the news all night? Well, they’ve mentioned this, but mostly I’ve been watching lighthearted coverage of Clinton’s eating habits and only somewhat less lighthearted stormchasing of Hurricane Francis.
Fine. That’s your opinion.
Would you have more trust in the honesty and objectivity of news reporters if they refered to them as ‘animals’?
But we are pretty much all reading the facts from multiple sources. Everyone from Fox to the BBC is running the story out there. I still fail to see why its important to LABLE them terrorists, when its pretty obvious they ARE terrorists. Why is that important???
As to the ‘Russian 9/11’ thing, god knows what the Russians will do…or CAN do for that matter. They have been pretty much stalemated in this Chechen civil war for what? A decade? With no end in sight. What could they do that they haven’t done so far?
What if AQ IS involved? Does that change the equation? If another outside terrorist group was involved? What could the world community do to help Russia resolve this civil war?? What steps would/could Russia make if this is totally an internal issue? If its a external escalation?
-XT