I finally saw some TV news on the marvelously skilled Russia rescue.
And what angle do you think the newsies are taking? Oh, lord. 90 hostages died. SCANDAL! SCANDAL! They killed the terrorists instead of pulling out of their war in Chechnya. SHOCK! HORROR! They used GAS! They haven’t told the DOCTORS what GAS they used on PEOPLE!
I want to know if the graduation ceremony for a Journalism degree requires brain removal. These people are just simply some of the most assinine, stupid, moronic, ignorant fools I can imagine standing on two feet while still retaining control of bowels and locomotion.
The alternative actions for the Russians were stark and terrible. They could have folded. Had they done so, Russia would have sent a message. Anyone along that entire Asian border stretching half way around the world from the Pacific to to Europe would know they could grab a piece of Russia. Terrorists would be planning their next demands and an even bigger attack before the last Chechen asswipe sobered up from the victory celebration.
Presumably this means journalists can’t understand maps beyond looking at the pretty colours.
The other alternative was to try talking and talking and talking. The problem is, we aren’t dealing with normal human beings. We are dealing with folk who got that old time religion. They aren’t people anymore. They are self portable Memes. The end result of this seige, whether it was tonight or several days from now would have been a charred wreckage with eight hundred corpses burned beyond recognition.
Perhaps it’s those children’s stories journalists read on airplanes. The ones where villains actually all have a good heart if you’d only figure out what makes them act so mean.
The only option for the Russians was to go in. The worst possible outcome of that was no different than the expected outcome. Acting meant some hostages might be saved. Inaction meant they all would die. As it turned out, brilliant tactics (and probably a healthy dose of luck) let them save better than 6 out of 7 of the hostages.
Our media people have become grotesque apologists for the most evil, ugly, murderous, callous, merciless killers on the planet. They are backers of our mortal enemies, enemies of a sort we will have to wipe from the face of this planet if we are to have a prayer of retaining a semi-liberal society.
I have no respect for these walking cowflops and their jaded, venomous self-loathing. It will be a happy day indeed when we have internet video broadcasts by intelligent and educated people on location and news anchors bringing the stories together who are more than a hair style holding their ears apart. When that day arrives, it will be with the greatest pleasure that I turn my back on them as I have already done with traditional print journalism.
We thank you for putting up with this brief interruption and return you to normal sedate Samizdata programming, now in progress.
I agree entirely with your comments.
I have been watching BBC coverage since last night in Canada and have noticed how the tone has changed as the casualty numbers have increased.
Last night, the tone was one of relief and praise for the Russian special forces; now a day later the tone is almost that the Russians shot their own hostages out of hand.
What do the BBC and the media in general expect the Russian authorities to do? Keep talking and only decide after the terrorist fanatics are serious after a couple of hundred executions? Give in completely and withdraw a whole army in a day or two (which is impossible and the terrorists know it)thus leaving Chechnya and many neighbouring regions of the Russian Federation to the not-so-tender mercies of muslim fanatics who have no qualms about brutally beheading hostages?
The Russians did what had to be done and while the deaths of 90 or so hostages is absolutely tragic; we must celebrate the amazing resue of 750 hostages!!
As you say, the consequences of giving in to terror are not to be contemplated and would only have led to more and more atrocities. Putin was not going to make the same mistake as Chyrnomirdin at Budyenovsk.
Russia cannot get out of Chechnya and leave an anarchy behind!! The Caucasus is unstable enough as it is without a black hole of fanatical Wahabi terrorism – a new Afghanistan – being created in the middle of it. The last time the Russians tried the withdrawal tactic, anarchic Chechen warlords started killing and kidnapping lots of people from the neighboring regions of Ingushetia and Dagestan who probably have good reasons from their history to fear the Chechens.
Yes, the Russians have fought a brutal war in Chechnya but Russian-Chechen animosity goes back some time. However, the behaviour of the Chechen warlords in the last 10 years have not increased my sympathy for them in any way – rather the opposite!!
I am also very unhappy at the way our media never mentions religion, Saudi influence or Al Queda in connection with Chechnya. According to Russian news reports, there was an Afghani and an Arab among the dead terrorists. In addition, the Chechens used the expression “Martyrdom Operation” to describe their mission which is the same expression as used by Bin Laden to describe 9/11.
When will our media clue in ? I am not holding my breath !!
I am sorry this is so long; we must all congratulate the Russians on the amazing job they have done today !!
But Dale, I want to know what you actually think about these people!
This Russiaon hostage rescue and the reaction reminds me of two airline crashes of years past, which had the same cause, but markedly different outcomes.
In the first, a Japanese 747 lost all hydraulics. The pilot was able to maintain flight, but made no attempt to land or ditch, even though he passed over water and airports several times. Eventually, the plane ran out of fuel and crashed in some mountains, killing all aboard.
In the second, an American 727, or somesuch, lost all hydraulics. Again, the pilot was able to maintain flight and trim by careful use of the engines. He arranged with an airport to allow him to try a landing, no wheels or flaps. He dumped all his fuel and came in best he could. The plane skidded on landing, started to turn, cartwheeled and broke up, killing about a third of the passengers, but the rest survived.
Now, which pilot would you rather have on YOUR plane?
Since the Chechians had said they would start killing hostages at dawn, there was little alternative for the Russians. The Russians deserve congratulations for the lives they saved. To Chechnia, if you want sympathy for your cause, confine your war to soldiers.
The Russians had very few options, none of them rosy. They picked the least bad of a list of bad alternatives. Pulling out of Chechnya because of these nutjobs would be a terrible mistake. Pulling out of Chechnya because it’s the right thing to do (which I think it is) would be a good thing, but the terrorists have made that even harder for Putin to do (if the terrorists were rational human beings, they could see this). Any movement out of Chechnya now makes him look like he’s giving in to terrorists.
I think about the Russian soldiers that had to enter the building. Even with the gas, they were entering the jaws of hell, not knowing if they would be shot, or buried beneath the building. That’s courage.
lk
After the Bali bombing, the local Islamist leader suggested that the survivors “convert to Islam, as soon as possible”. At that point, my description for the lot of them has become “evangelical moslems”. On a smaller scale, if these evangelicals in Moscow had held 14 hostages, and the police had killed or captured the lot with only 2 hostages lost, we’d be singing their praises.
I guess it’s just the scale of the thing.
Least worst option executed skillfully. But I do not understand why the Russians can’t release details of the gas to medical professionals for the purpose of treating the hostages.
Medical need is a good reason for disseminating information to the relevant personnel.
“The problem is, we aren’t dealing with normal human beings. We are dealing with folk who got that old time religion. They aren’t people anymore. They are self portable Memes.”
Well if that was true we could hardly hold them responsible for their actions could we?
Joe Kaplinsky: Of course, we can. They made that choice and the consequence is that they cannot be treated as rational human beings. They have forsaken reason and so it would be a mistake on our part to treat them as if they still possesed it.
By the same logic, Stalin believed his own personality cult propaganda and acted as on it, so the poor mistaken, mislead soul was not really responsible for his behaviour. Eh?
Adriana says “they cannot be treated as rational human beings.” I agree with that (with qualifications that won’t fit in a comment box).
But the original statement was stronger: “They aren’t people anymore.” So is the claim that they commited suicide when they abandoned reason, and to kill them is just to wipe out animals or zombies? Would you describe that as holding them to account? In any case it is wrong.
“They are self portable Memes” is even worse. I count memes as probably the dumbest theory of recent times. But according to the theory we have no choice as to which memes infect us. How could we take responsibilty for that?
I do not subscribe to the meme theory, but to ‘the theory of individual’. You make your choices and bear the consequences of those choices. My concern is with enabling all individuals to live in an environment where their choices will be free and informed ones.
That is, by the way, one of the main reasons why I want the US with the Western world destroy Saddam and islamo-fascists of all colours and persuasions. No tolerance for the intolerant!
From some things I’ve been told a few hours ago, there may be some areas in which the Russian military does need a good wrist slapping. If the gas used does indeed have adverse reactions that have killed quite a few people over night, they should have supplied that information.
The problem is, they just have not quite gotten over all of the old bad habits of withholding information and replying Nyet to everything.
If Putin is a smart as he appears to be, there will be a few officers well dressed down for this after the success failure.
Anaesthesia is a really hard thing to get perfect. It takes a medical professional to do it, and even then they kill some. So by just pumping in sleepy gas, you’ll kill some, put many asleep, and leave a few groggy but active. This is an unavoidable feature of using an unvarying dose on an assorted group of people. That’s even before air turbulence makes the gas dilute unevenly.
Maybe it is just a contrarian streak in me coming out, but one thing I have NOT noticed in all of today’s (27 Oct) blogosphere commentary on the Russian hostage rescue is the least criticism of the decision of the Russian authorities to resolve the crisis by gassing an auditorium full of hostages (mostly their own citizens) with what was probably some sort of nerve-agent (aren’t these type of weapons banned?) Which resulted not only in the [well-deserved] deaths of the terrorist hostage-takers, but at the last count, 116 hostages – with about 200 more in hospital in IC or Critical. Hopefully, all or most will survive, but even so – this seems a pretty high casualty rate to earn the description “spendidly executed”. Also, the Russians reported head-shot many of the gas-immobilized terrorists – why the no-prisoners action? Have they got something to hide?
While talking wasn’t (and of course, never could be) the way to resolve a deadly situation like “Nord-Ost”; was this really the best resolution?
Given that Vladimir Putin used to be in the KGB, I think this was probably the best resolution that could be expected.
The use of gas to knock them out faster than they could blow their bombs was the thing I didn’t think of, and is the reason why the majority instead of a handful were rescued.
I fully expected Russian special forces to go in guns blazing and pray they could drag a few hostages out before the terrorists could blow the whole place.
Even with the knockout gas, the best option was to make absolutely sure no groggy bomb laden whacko could manage to push the button. In that sort of combat environment you take them down. FAST.
They told al Jezeera (sp?) they wanted death more than the Russians wanted life; the Russians proved them correct. They are dead, the Russians are (mostly) alive.
The shooting of the majority of the terrorists was a feature, not a bug.
The gas was a good idea; it saved the lives of hundreds. The only complaint I have is they should have given the doctors advance info so they’d have been prepped for if/when the go signal was given.
If you have a way to disarm 50 trained terrorists with push button bombs and automatic weapons in a collapsable theater with near 800 civilians in it… please do tell us how you’d pull it off with a lower civilian loss of life than they managed.
Lucas Wiman: “Pulling out of Chechnya is the right thing to do” you say. The trouble is that the Russians DID pull out of Chechnya in 1996. Chechnya became a chaotic place of warring warlord bands, and a heaven for terrorists, with terrorism and violence spilling over to neighbouring areas. The Chechens (warlords) are not peaceful and peace loving angels. And what about the human rights issue after Chechen independence ? I don’t think it is a moral thing to let corrupt and murdurous thugs to have their way and subjugate a people just because they are of the same ethnic group. This “pull out of Chechnya” idea is not as simple as it seems.
When the truth finally comes out, I believe we’ll learn that many or most of the hostage deaths could have been avoided if the post-attack had been planned as well as tht attack itself. A very high price to pay for ingrained habits of secrecy and lies.
As for shooting the guerillas, that seems like the right decision to me. Would you take a chance that they might gain conciousness long enought to set off their bomb?
Damn… I am glad that the hostages are saved, but quite frankly the press makes me want to throw up.
As for why the information isn’t given, two reasons come to mind, first is that they want to keep the gas a secret, and second and most likely is that it’s just a bureaucratic screw up, same as the reason as to why they drove the hostages to hospitals in busses rather than ambulances (or establishing a field hospital outside the theatre).
Here’s the funny bit though, before the new slant began coming out I wrote this dream scene on my blog, where an article was read up and the Lord of the Idiotarians ordered that it be dispersed to all the news sources. Guess what? What I wrote as sarcasm has in essence been what the newspapers wrote in all earnesty. Sarcasm is difficult in the 21st Century.
100% right.
My only question is whether it is a reflecton on the press or on the pathetic state of Russia – that they can’t even recognise their own victory.
Here in Oz we are getting plenty of self-loathing vox pops from Moscow.
I confirm Simon Roberts observation as to how “the media” is handling the matter in Australia. I think the Ruskies have set the standard that I hope my own government would follow in a similar situation.
I agree, more insults and abuse need to be heaped on the press, and congratulations and kudo’s given to the Russians.
Sanity will win if we keep at it.
Little point in writing a comment (as my last one seems to have been removed), but also there is little point in not writing here.
Chechnya only “fell into chaos and warlordism” when the Russian government murdered the President of Chechnya (an ex Soviet Air Force General – and not a radical muslim). The President of Chechnya was an ally of the Christian President of Georgia (one of the few nonCommunists to come to power in an ex Soviet Republic) – the Russian government organised a coup against the Georgian President (and later murdered him).
As for Mr Putin – I do not know whether he ordered the blowing up of the housing blocks (the excuse for the latest invasion of Chechnya) but he certainly benefited from these events.
It is also interesting to note that the terrorists who took the people hostage (and these terrorists were scum, I agree) were shot AFTER they had been put to sleep. WHY? Were the authorities concerned about what they might say?
There have been long been rumours that terrorists in Chechnya (such as the uncle of the terrorist leader – a man who killed westerners) were originally backed by Moscow – as a way of destablising the country. That Moscow kills these people is no proof that they were not once connected – Chekists like Mr Putin have allways acted that way.
Lastly most Chechens hate Wahabi types (being Sufi type Muslims themselves).
Paul Marks.
Hunter McDaniel: I agree! The Russian rescue op was well done BUT in typical Russian fashion, it was all teeth and no tail.
There should have been a small army of medical people ready to move in the instant that the all-clear was given (i.e. the second a bullet had been put in the head of all the knocked out terrorists with bombs strapped to their bodies).
These medical people, in NCB gear, could have supervised RAPID evacuation of the freed hostages under tight armed supervision (to prevent any knocked out terrorists being ‘rescued’) and then rapidly triaged and then treated the worst cases on the spot as soon as they were taken outside. Alas it is this sort of logistic ‘tail’ thinking the Russians have always been terrible at
Superb comment here.
Notice how the miserable, spineless and apologetic media continues to label them as “Chechen Rebels” because WOE TO THEM from CAIR if they even mutter a single “ISLAMIC” or “MUSLIM” word in the true definition that they are CHECHEN MUSLIM EXTREMIST PIGS.
America needs to wake up to the fact that ISLAMISTS are our number one enemy, and to hell with political correctness.
Come and join us if you’re wanting to have a voice against muslim radicalism.
Superb comment here.
Notice how the miserable, spineless and apologetic media continues to label them as “Chechen Rebels” because WOE TO THEM from CAIR if they even mutter a single “ISLAMIC” or “MUSLIM” word in the true definition that they are CHECHEN MUSLIM EXTREMIST PIGS.
America needs to wake up to the fact that ISLAMISTS are our number one enemy, and to hell with political correctness.