Because of the convention, real news elsewhere isn't getting the attention it deserves. In Russia, Chechen rebels have taken a school filled with children hostage. Three civilians were killed during the taking of the school, and now between 120 and 150 adults and children are being held. The assault took place on the first day of the new school year.
But this is just the latest attack. Earlier this week a female suicide bomber killed nine people in central Moscow. Last week two Russian passenger planes were blown up by suicide bombers.
Either Vice President Cheney tonight, or President Bush tomorrow, should mention these horrible events. They show that this is not a contest between the Islamists and America, but rather between the Islamists and Western civilization.
4 hours ago
2 comments:
I was a little disappointed at reading this.
Unfortunately, things in Russia are more nuanced, and I am happy at least Oxblog has picked up on that - the conflict is composed of "illiberal seccessionists fighting an illiberal Russian government." (http://oxblog.blogspot.com/)
The same idea is espoused by Anna Politkovskaya in the two books she has written on the Chechen wars - A Small Corner of Hell : Dispatches from Chechnya and A Dirty War: A Russian Reporter in Chechnya; and opinions in Novaya Gazeta.
Both parties - the Russian government and the Chechen separatists - are essentially anti-liberal and anti-democratic. They both carry part of the blame for what is happening right now.
To their demise, Chechen separatists are becoming increasingly open to members (and methods) of international terrorist groups, and thus are defining the conflict in such a way that one can only support the other side.
The other side - the Russian government and their ideologues - is, however, very dangerous to democracy as well.
I agree that, based on how this conflict has been defined by the separatists, Western governments have to support Russia, which is, in this case, represented by the innocent hostages.
The West must not, on the other hand, show unconditional support to the Russian government and look the other way when Putin&co are trying to cover up their anti-Western track record.
Anti-democratic and anti-liberal methods and views are equally condemnable, no matter where they come from.
The Russian government must be encouraged to democratize and move toward Western civilization. Otherwise, we risk making the same mistakes people made after WWII. They thought that because the Soviet Union beat the Nazis, they couldn't be that bad. Well, ask Eastern Europe.
When two evils fight, one has to support the "collateral damage" on both sides (in this case Chechen and Russian civilians, for whom the path to a better life can only be provided by liberal democracy), and fight for the disappearance of those evils, instead of taking sides and accepting a part of that "collateral damage."
We must look at who serves the Russian citizens better (all of them), not which anti-democratic element caters better to the West. If both fail to do so, they need to be called on it. Support for the Russian civilians must be declared without hesitation and unconditionally, but we need to be more reserved when the Russian government asks us to do the same thing for them.
Until I see Vladimir Putin take a couple hundred children hostage, I'm not ready to equate his government with the terrorists.
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