September 04, 2004

An Attack on Humanity
Posted by Dale Franks

Ralph Peters responds to the Massacre in Beslan.

Make no mistake: No blame attaches to the Russians for the massacre at that school. The guilt is entirely upon the Islamic extremists who have led the religion they claim to cherish into the realms of nightmare.

There will be repercussions. Having suffered the hijacking and destruction of two passenger jets, a deadly bombing at a Moscow subway station and a massacre in a primary school all in less than two weeks, the Kremlin will have learned to rue the day it imagined that there was anything to gain by opposing American efforts against terrorists, whether Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein.

As they inevitably do, the terrorists reminded the world of their heartless barbarism. Even if France manages to beg the release of its kidnapped journalists in Iraq, it has begun to sense its vulnerability. And all Europeans with a vestige of sense will recognize that the school seizure in Russia could easily repeat itself in Languedoc or Umbria, Bavaria or Kent.

An attack on children is an attack on all of humanity.

No matter what differences Western states discover to divide them, the terrorists will bring us together in the end. Their atrocities expose all wishful thinking for what it is.

Children. Shooting children in the back with automatic rifles. Because, after all, they aren't Muslims, so God will reward you for it. This is the face of our enemy: Men who will shoot children in the back, and kill as many of them as possible to make their point.

Words fail me.

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Comments

I was up watching the events as they unfolded, and I was almost sick. Watching the bloody kids stream out of the school, running to APC's, reminded me of film and pictures of Vietnam.

What truly scares me is these terrorists have no regard for any life, even one that is 6 months old....

Posted by: Van Santos at September 4, 2004 06:28 AM

Sadly, however, the moral relativists will come to the murderers' defense. Apparently they're already working overtime at it.

Slowly, the crime becomes less and less severe, as the morality becomes more and more relative. Eventually, this incident will be morally equivalent to "civil disobedience".

Many, many, many more innocents will die before the left wakes up. They'll always blame someone else (even themselves) first.

Moral relativism is suicide. Unfortunately, they'll insist on taking you with them.

Posted by: Walt at September 4, 2004 06:31 AM

I disagree with Ralph Peters completely on one point: I don't give a turd about what some collection of Imams say somewhere in the world. Of course they will denounce this incident. The time has come for them to clean up their own house by actions not words. They can start by obstructing terrorists around the world: they can shut down Hamas in Lebanon and rout the Janjaweed in the Sudan for example. I'm not holding my breath.

Again, I can't stress this enough: until a Muslim picks up a gun and shoots another Muslim to prevent genocide and massacres, then all of the words of all of the Imams in the whole world are not just empty, they are contemptible. They should be mocked if not ignored entirely.

We also have to start making the case now for Muslims to reform their own faith or leave it. Another aspect of the relativism that Walt describes is that it presents no challenge to Muslim orthodoxy. How did intellectuals at out best universities become so weak and spineless as to not be able to discriminate between counting chads in Florida in 2000 and shooting Russian children in the back? This is at the root of terrorism. Not poverty, not unemployment, and not corporations, but simply a worldview lacking in morals and vision and filled with the hatred of Muslim orthodoxy for non Muslims. Yes, it is time for Muslims to end it or we will end it for them.

Posted by: pdq332 at September 4, 2004 07:32 AM

Watch: a deluded lib somewhere will insinuate that Bush is actually behind this latest atrocity by the Islamists.

Posted by: Mr. K at September 4, 2004 07:50 AM

It's time to drain the swamp. Islam is an insane death cult, an inexhaustible breeding ground for millions of Ted Bundys and Charlie Mansons. What do you do with a swamp that breeds death? END IT--KILL THEM ALL. Many of the worst Islamofascist leaders grew up in reasonable sane Muslim families. Kill or be killed--better them than us. KILL THEM ALL.

Posted by: John Cunningham at September 4, 2004 08:33 AM

It's a darn shame that a Presidential Cadidate would ignore this horrible tragedy:

Kerry Ignores Terrorism
ATLANTA (GoodNewsAmerica.us) September 04, 2004 - On a day filled with the horror of terrorism in Russia and the nation reminded of the possibility of terrorism in America, Presidential Candidate John Kerry has failed to address the subject. The Kerry campaign has released no statements condemning the terrorist acts in Russia as so many others throughout the world have done, nor have any recent speeches confronted the issue of terrorism.

The horror of innocents held captive, where weak and fleeing children are shot in the back by Islamic terrorists while the world watches has not caught his attention. The malicious slaughter of 250 people without hesitation was not enough for Mr. Kerry to notice. The fact that 10 of the terrorists were Arab and the suicide bombers were trained by Al-Quaeda was not worthy of mention.

Kerry has not sent his condolences to the Russian people either as a Presidential candidate, or as a United States Senator.

In an midnight speech Friday morning on the heals of the President's acceptance of the Republican nomination, Kerry failed to bring up the topic of terrorism. There was also no mention of what he would do to defend the United States. The words terror, terrorism, nor security were present in the speech.

The President has personally called President Putin to express his support and condolences. From the campaign trail in Wisconsin the President declared the hostage crisis as "another grim reminder" of what terrorists will do. Scott McClellan says the President believes the slaughter to be "despicable", and that America stands side-by-side with Russia.

"We grieve with Russia on this tragic day - [t]he blame for this lies squarely with the terrorists," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Friday morning.
http://goodnewsamerica.us/news.php?extend.208

Posted by: numberonepal at September 4, 2004 08:48 AM

Hey, Kerry's busy getting ready to come out fighting against Dick Cheney over his patriotism.

He'll be sensitve about Russia once his handlers remind him it would appear presidental to do so.
Or, maybe he'll go wind surfing.

Posted by: looker at September 4, 2004 09:18 AM

I posted this previously but I think it shows what some of the parents endured. A dozen mothers were given a Sophie's choice.

Zalina Dzandarova cradles her son Alan as he sleeps with his small face buried against her stomach. He is the child Dzandarova was able to save. The child she chose to save, really.

It is the other one, little Alana, her 6-year-old daughter, whose image torments her: Alana clutching her hand, Alana crying and calling after her. Alana's sobs disappearing into the distance as Dzandarova walked out of Middle School No. 1 here Thursday, clutching 2-year-old Alan in her arms.

It was the little girls first day at school and the mother went with her to get her settled in along with the baby boy she was forced to make the choice for. I have 10 and 6 year old children and the thought of having to leave my 6 year child screaming and crying behind to a certain death would be too much for me to live with. I don't know how this poor mother will ever be able to.

While the movie "Sophie's Choice" was just a movie, it represented the horrible evil that was the nature of the holocaust. We always hope that life will never outdo art in quite this way.

What does the the "compassionate left" think of all this?

Ollie Willis thinks that any show of outrage is an attack on the democrats. Every story that knocks John Kerry off the news is an attack against him personally!? What a complete fruit loop. Oliver, you know this isn't about you, you deluded moron!

Mathew Ygleias (who cares how its spelled) thinks we should prevent the Russians from doing anything rash.
Rash!! Let me get my hands on one of those guys and I'll show you rash. idiot.

This brings back all the bs that these sorts of guys were going on about in the days after 9/11. Oh, it's our fault (Chomsky, Sontag et al.). Oh they didn't vote for bush, so why kill them (Moore).

God, and those are the kind of guys that we want in power when this shit goes down. Not bloody likely!

Posted by: capt joe at September 4, 2004 09:34 AM

Sometimes god answers.

Posted by: capt joe at September 4, 2004 10:03 AM

Capt Joe - yeah I was just about to post this (and will anyway).

BESLAN, Russia — For the first time in 24 hours, Zalina Dzandarova stopped feeling dead inside Friday. She had her daughter back — covered with blood, and suffering from shock and dehydration. But alive.

A day earlier, hostage-takers had forced the 27-year-old mother of two to leave the sobbing 6-year-old behind at Middle School No. 1. Only if she abandoned Alana, they told her, could Dzandarova carry her 2-year-old son, Alan, with her to freedom

Posted by: looker at September 4, 2004 10:13 AM

I remember in the early nineties, on the wayback after a business trip, I decided to look up an old friend who at the time just retired as a colonel in the israeli army. He showed me around and then one day asked if I wanted to come with him on a trip with his daughter's school. Apparently he signed up to go with the class as one of the chaperoning parents. I figured, okay, see what a school trip looks like here.

So, anyway, we drove to the elementary school and all the kids were getting ready. Then a few teachers and parents were passed firearms. My friend saw the look on my face and laughed. He said "Things are different here. Here, terrorists would willingly kill a few small children to advance their cause. Teachers are responsible for the physical protection of the children. They are their bodyguards."

I thought about it and then asked him if I could carry one of those firearms also. But he declined and appologized saying that school policy only allowed teachers and active duty/reservists from the IDF like himself to carry them.

I thought about that a lot afterwards. I wondered if any other country would have their teachers also be responsible for fighting for the lives of their charges.

Posted by: capt joe at September 4, 2004 10:42 AM

Gerald Van Leun has a nice post.

He asks an important question at the end. Are we willing to do anything to keep our wives and children out of those pictures. Anything? I know what my answer is.

Posted by: capt joe at September 4, 2004 11:05 AM

Dave Kopel has a good post. I knew about Israeli teachers but did not know that Thai teachers in the south were carrying guns also.

Posted by: capt joe at September 4, 2004 01:08 PM