wee_bit_strange@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(Wee Bit Strange) wrote in message
news:<29db2d75.0409031045.31246b82@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>...
> I'm pretty uninformed on global issues, but it seems to me that
> Chechnya wants to be independent and Russia disagrees. I got that
> part. I just don't know why. Russia has already had a number of
> regions splinter off and become separate republics.
>
> Why not Chechnya? I'm guessing Russia doesn't want to part with
> Chechnya because something is there that makes it valuable: oil? a
> ****t? agriculture?
>
> Is there a right side and a wrong side? Is there a consensus? (I'm
> inclined to think Chechnya deserves to be independent, like the other
> republics were allowed to be.)
>
> Thanks in advance for the information. Sorry I'm such a dolt.
No apology needed, Amy. The situation is far from simple.
As an Old Chechen Hand with the Office, though, I will
try and explain as clearly as possible
In essence, there is a just Chechen cause. That
admirable freedom movement has -- in large part
due to Russian stubbornness and bloody ham-fistedness --
been co-opted by evildoers, by twisted marauders of the
sort who took over the school recently triggering the
series of horrible events that a stunned world has
recently witnessed.
A great thinker once observed something to the effect
that "a fanatical mind is the Devil's favorite and most
useful toy." Much of the world has seen, to its
horror, in the slaughter of so many innocents, how
wise that ancient admonition really is.
At one time, Chechnya was a free country, until a 19th
entury Russian Czar decided that the beautiful, rugged
land would make a nice prize for his kingdom. After
fighting bravely, the Chechens were defeated, at least
for a time. However, Chechens have never accepted
Russian rule. One way or another, they have always
resisted it.
Of course, right now it is in the Russian government's
best interest to present the matter in simplistic terms
to the rest of the world and to encourage people
everywhere to believe that things were rosy in Chechnya
until murderous fanatics of the Al Quaida stamp moved
in.
On the contrary, the truth is more that Russia had
trampled on the aspirations of many good Chechens
to the point that not enough was left of Chechnya's
leader****p to prevent the mad dogs (like the rabid
beasts who took over that school) from setting up
their tents.
It is not, as some have said without sufficent
consideration, a situation like the early U. S.
and the American Indians. A much better -- though
admittedly imperfect -- analogy would be to imagine
the United States had the bad judgement to make
Puerto Rico a state of the U. S., and the Puerto Ricans
never had accepted that and were in a continual state
of active or passive rebellion.
Now, I have always sup****ted the cause of Chechen
independence, which in fact is why some people in
the Russian newsgroup are not happy with me. Sadly,
some participants in that forum seem to think that
you are not a true friend to Russia unless you
post a knee-jerk reaction of approval to any and
all Russian actions, no matter how wrong-headed.
If Russia had done the right thing and had helped set
up an independant Chechen state back in the early 1990's
(as a gesture of good will regarding many atrocities
of the Soviet state, perhaps) there could be a free
and properous Chechnya right now, working side by side
with Russia.
Yet, because of Russian intransigence and the
subsequent destruction of so many moderate elements
in Chechnya, a situation has resulted wherein if
Russia pulled out of Chechnya tomorrow, the
consequence would very likely be a vile pit
sub-human fanaticism perhaps even more heinous
in nature than Afghanistan under the Taliban.
For that reason, I can no longer in good conscience
call for a Russian pull-out of Chechnya in the
near future. Because of what has transpired, I
hereby retract any such demands that I made in the
past.
In other words, now that Russians have mucked up the
place so badly, about all the rest of the world can
hope for is that Russians eventually show some good
will and much diplomatic ingenuity by, with one hand,
destroying the same sort of bloody, fanatical bands
which took over the school and killed the infants
and other innocents, while with the other hand,
helping any sensible Chechen leaders or potential
leaders toward the building of a free and prosperous
Chechnya where religious freedom and fair treatment
for all regardless of ethnicity is insured by law.
Further, it must be pointed out that there should
NEVER be a "Muslim state" in Chechnya.
The good people of that mountain land deserve far
better.
What would be desirable would be an independent state
where freedom of religion is protected. If a majority
choose to be Muslim, fine, but, frankly, what
neither Russia nor the world needs is for someone
to take the chewed-up scraps of Chechen society
that the Russian dogs of war have left, and from
such scraps cobble-together a theocratic hell-hole.
So, you see, Amy, things are not as simple nor as
black and white as some posters would have you
believe. Perhaps these facts and opinions I have
offered can be of some assistance to you in putting
the issues involved in the Russian-Chechen conflict
in proper perspective.
Mr. Palmer
Room 314 in the upstairs office
>
> --Amy
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