There are many idiots in the world writing books. What is this about
pro-Chechen terrorists?
They were not pro-Chechen; they were just murderers who enjoy killing.
"Trident" <wynnkey@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:8b72a662.0409100459.79ef3c37@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> "GIVE THE CHECHENS A LAND OF THEIR OWN"
>
> OP-ED By Richard Pipes, The New York Times
> New York, New York,
> Thursday, September 9, 2004
>
> The terrorist attack in Beslan in Russia's North Caucasus was not only
> bloody but viciously sadistic: the children taken hostage by pro-Chechen
> terrorists were denied food and drink and even forbidden to go to the
> bathroom, then massacred when the siege was broken. It is proper for the
> civilized world to express outrage and feel solidarity with the Russian
> people. But to say this is not necessarily to agree with those -
including
> President Bush and President Vladimir Putin of Russia - who would equate
> the massacre with the 9/11 attacks and Islamic terrorism in general.
>
> In his post-Beslan speech, Mr. Putin all but linked the attack to global
> Islam: "We have to admit that we have failed to recognize the complexity
> and
> dangerous nature of the processes taking place in our own country and
the
> world in general." Re****ts that some of the terrorists were Arabs
> reinforce
> that line of thinking. But the fact is, the Chechen cause and that of Al
> Qaeda are quite different, and demand very different approaches in
> combating them.
>
> Terrorism is a means to an end: it can be employed for limited ends as
> well
> as for unlimited destructiveness. The terrorists who blew up the train
> station in Madrid just before the Spanish election this year had a
> specific
> goal in mind: to compel the withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq. The
> Chechen case is, in some respects, analogous. A small group of Muslim
> people, the Chechens have been battling their Russian conquerors for
> centuries.
>
> At the close of World War II, Stalin had the entire Chechen nation
exiled
> to
> Kazakhstan for alleged collaboration with the Nazis. Khrushchev allowed
> them
> to return to their homeland but they continued to chafe under Russian
> rule.
>
> Because Chechnya, unlike the Ukraine or Georgia, had never enjoyed the
> status of a nominally independent republic under the Communists, the
> Chechens were denied the right to secede from the Russian Federation
after
> the collapse of the Soviet Union. And so they eventually resorted to
> terrorism for the limited objective of independence.
>
> A clever arrangement secured by the Russian security chief, Gen.
Alexander
> Lebed, in 1996 granted the Chechens de facto sovereignty while
officially
> they remained Russian citizens. Peace ensued. It was broken by several
> terrorist attacks on Russian soil, which the authorities blamed on the
> Chechens (although many skeptics attributed them to Russian security
> agencies eager to create a pretext to bring Chechnya back into the
fold).
> A
> second Chechen war began in 1999, of which there seems no end in sight.
>
> This history makes clear how the events in Russia differ from 9/11. The
> attacks on New York and the Pentagon were unprovoked and had no specific
> objective. Rather, they were part of a general assault of Islamic
> extremists
> bent on destroying non-Islamic civilizations. As such, America's war
with
> Al
> Qaeda is non-negotiable. But the Chechens do not seek to destroy Russia
-
> thus there is always an op****tunity for compromise.
>
> Unfortunately, Russia's leaders, and to some extent the populace, are
> loath
> to grant them independence - in part because of a patrimonial mentality
> that
> inhibits them from surrendering any territory that was ever part of the
> Russian homeland, and in part because they fear that granting the
Chechens
> sovereignty would lead to a greater unraveling of their federation. The
> Kremlin also does not want to lose face by capitulating to force.
>
> The Russians ought to learn from the French. France, too, was once
> involved
> in a bloody colonial war in which thousands fell victim of terrorist
> violence. The Algerian war began in 1954 and dragged on without an end
in
> sight, until Charles de Gaulle courageously solved the conflict by
> granting
> Algeria independence in 1962. This decision may have been even harder
than
> the choice confronting President Putin, because Algeria was much larger
> and
> contributed more to the French economy than Chechnya does to Russia's,
> and hundreds of thousands of French citizens lived there.
>
> Until and unless Moscow follows the French example, the terrorist menace
> will not be alleviated. It is as impossible to track Chechens scattered
> throughout Russia as it is to intimidate the suicidal fanatics among
them.
> Worse, the continuation of Chechen terrorism threatens to undermine the
> authority of Mr. Putin, whose landslide victory in last spring's
> presidential election was in good measure due to the voters' belief that
> he
> could contain the Chechen threat. Russians respect strong authority, and
> there are new signs that Mr. Putin's inability to wield it over Chechnya
> makes them wonder whether he is fit to rule them. After the school
siege,
> there was much muttering in the streets that under Stalin such
atrocities
> would not have occurred.
>
> Unfortunately, he seems determined not to yield an inch. "We showed
> weakness, and the weak are trampled upon," he said on Saturday. This
> may seem like a truism to Russians, but in this case it is wrong.
Russia,
> the largest country on earth, can surely afford to let go of a tiny
> colonial
> dependency, and ought to do so without delay. (END)
>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Richard Pipes is an emeritus professor of history at Harvard and the
> author
> of "A Concise History of the Russian Revolution" and, most recently, of
> "Vixi: The Memoirs of a Non-Belonger."
|
