Imshin, I was reading your views about the pornographic nature of the photos from Russia and normally I would agree with you 100% but I have just seen a horrific scene where a grieving mother was weeping over the bodies of her dead children. My wife and I were incensed but then it transpired that the local people had asked the cameraman to expose the murderous nature of Islamic fundamentalism!
It was then I remembered one of the most enduring images of horror of the 20th century...the little girl running down a road in Vietnam with her skin hanging from her scorched body. That image did more to galvanise anti war sentiment than all the mortality statistics combined. I think the fundamentalist bastards have shot themselves in the foot big style.
Sooner or later people have to realise that even if Israel had never existed the fundamentalists would still be killing in the Philippines, Kashmir [which kicked off in 1948 before Israel existed], Indonesia and East Timor, Russia and Sudan...Israel is the front line of our defence against these child murderers.
John
It was then I remembered one of the most enduring images of horror of the 20th century...the little girl running down a road in Vietnam with her skin hanging from her scorched body. That image did more to galvanise anti war sentiment than all the mortality statistics combined. I think the fundamentalist bastards have shot themselves in the foot big style.
Sooner or later people have to realise that even if Israel had never existed the fundamentalists would still be killing in the Philippines, Kashmir [which kicked off in 1948 before Israel existed], Indonesia and East Timor, Russia and Sudan...Israel is the front line of our defence against these child murderers.
John
I fear most people in the west will not learn anything from this horror. This is seen as a local matter, the direct result of Russian cruelty towards the Chechens.
Not till something on this scale happens in Paris, John, will people begin to grasp what is happening, maybe not even then.
The BBC kept saying last night something about Russian authorities seeing the hostage takers as responsible for most of the deaths. This drove me crazy.
THE HOSTAGE TAKERS WERE ONE HUNDRED PERCENT RESPONSIBLE FOR EVERY LAST DEATH IN AND AROUND THAT SCHOOL. Even if every child that had died there had been shot in the head by Russian soldiers, something that clearly didn’t happen of course, their blood would still have been on the hands of the hostage takers. Is this not clear? Is this not obvious? What is this sickness, this perverseness, to blame the deaths of these children on anyone but those murderous fiends who created this horror?
Update: More gems from the BBC:
European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels offered their condolences, but said the EU would ask Russia to explain how such a tragedy could have been allowed to happen.
BBC world affairs correspondent William Horsley says the EU statement implies concern not only about the behaviour of Russian security forces at the siege, but also about Moscow's reliance on harsh military force in Chechnya.
BBC world affairs correspondent William Horsley says the EU statement implies concern not only about the behaviour of Russian security forces at the siege, but also about Moscow's reliance on harsh military force in Chechnya.
Update update: And that isn't even the worst. Here's more about BBC nastiness.