Bush offers help with hostage standoff at Russian school

Bush offers help with hostage standoff at Russian school

The Associated Press


Last Updated: September 1, 2004, 01:18:00 PM PDT


MOSCOW (AP) - President Bush called Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday and said the United States is prepared to give any help needed to resolve the hostage-taking at a Russian school, the Kremlin said.

Bush emphasized that Washington and Moscow are fighting international terrorism shoulder-to-shoulder, it said.

http://www.modbee.com/24hour/politics/story/1616041p-9294074c.html

We should be so lucky!

civilian casualties? who cares! terra! terra! terra!

"No, really, thanks but we'll try to handle it. I appreciate you thinking of us....no really....we'll....think of something....."

I sure as Hell wouldn't want his help!

It makes it look like GW has a handle on international
Terra ism

Bush offering Putin help resolving a hostage-taking is like . . .
(any ideas for completing the analogy)?

:shrug:

It'd be enough to make the patient opt for a Cub Scout with a sharp knife.

I think you exactly picked up what I was getting at, tho.

I think leaders of other countries already have had enough of Bush "helping" out by increasing terrorism

that Bush will go back to Crawford
after they release the hostages.

THAt is an offer they cannot refuse.

"My Pet Goat".

Schoolbooks and uniforms in tow...Yep, that's the ticket

for his own publicity. I can just imagine Rove jumpng up and down, kids, kids, kids, scared looking parents, crying parents--perfect!
Call em George and offer to send in our special forces.

Sic yer dawg on 'em!

Sic 'em!

He can't offer any intelligence assistance since he has already admitted to having intelligence failures prior to 9/11 and the Iraq invasion;

He can't offer any military assistance since "his" military is bogged down in two wars, neither one successful;

He can't offer diplomatic assistance since his own diplomatic efforts are wrought with lies and deception;

He can't offer financial assistance since US spending is out of control and he is running the largest deficits in US history;

No one in the world community would take him seriously, so what the Hell can Bush do for Putin?

"Hey, Vlad. I can put you in touch with a guy from Halliburton, who can get your soldiers lunches for $11.50 and cans of soda for $3.75 a pop..."

in place of the kids.....
but of course he wouldn't do it, not in a milion years.

... of the fight against GLOBAL terrorism?

I'm not saying I support the acts of the Chechnya rebels, but we must be careful not to scope-creep ourselves into being a de facto military force for all regimes experiencing rebellion.

We need to prioritize the fight; otherwise we'll be spread too thin and won't be able to get closure on any front.

Granted, though, that the geographic and political links between Al Qaeda and the Chechnyan rebels makes this particular case tougher to call.

the hostage's. Putin said they don't want gas bag Cheney, he is of no value.

He offered to personally show up and rescue the hostages himself, but withdrew the offer after he learned that the children in the school were the hostages, and not the terrorists.

STOP HEINOUS ACTS BY RUSSIANS AND CHECHENS

http://www.theoathbook.com/op-ed.php

"I am a Chechen doctor who treated many wounded and dying people -- Russian soldiers, Chechen fighters, but mainly innocent civilians -- during Russia's two recent wars with Chechnya. Like many others, I watched the recent hostage-taking horror in Moscow on television. I felt for the victims crammed into a theater auditorium and terrorized by Movsar Barayev and his followers. Along with most Chechens, I condemn this barbarous act, which is the latest atrocity in the brutal conflict that has raged since December 1994 when 300,000 Russian troops invaded Chechnya. In January 1999, I too was taken hostage by Movsar's uncle, the late Arbi Barayev, who condemned me to death in a makeshift Islamic court for treating Russians. The reason Barayev spared me was because he needed me to treat his wounded men. Arbi Barayev, like the hostage takers in Moscow, claimed to be a Muslim. In my eyes, and in the eyes of most Chechens, terrorism is an insult to our faith. Islam is a religion of peace, even if some fanatics have hijacked it to justify their evil deeds.

Tragically the hostage-taking in the theater fuels President Putin's effort to depict Chechens as Islamic extremists and will be another excuse to mount reprisals against us. If you believe the Russian media, Chechnya is a hotbed of terrorists funded by the terrorist organization Al Qaeda. This is a distortion of the facts. Moscow prevents both Russian and foreign journalists from going to Chechnya, so it is hard for the world to know the truth, which is that the vast majority of Chechens want nothing more than to be allowed to live their lives peacefully.

...

Each week dozens of Russian soldiers die in Chechen ambushes, and Chechen men routinely are abducted off the street to be ransomed off to their relatives or executed. This happens beyond the view of the rest of the world, but it is an international tragedy. Hostage taking is no way to resolve this conflict. Violence breeds violence. We need the international community to help bring an end to the bloodshed.

...

Unless steps are taken to end this barbarity through political negotiations, the killing of the innocent will continue. The reprisals by Russia have already started, and there may well be more desperate acts of terror, designed to draw international attention to this forgotten war. The circle of violence will continue unless a political resolution can be found. Unfortunately, the United States appears to have reached an understanding with Russia whereby the United States will no longer criticize the human rights abuses in Chechnya in return for Russia's support of the US battle against global terrorism and efforts to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Meanwhile, the innocent suffer."

http://www.theoathbook.com/op-ed.php

Before you get yourself in a big bind...that Jessica Lynch rescue you're thinking about was play-acting. If you don't believe me, ask Uncle Crashcart.
Honest...it ain't that easy.

</fundie off>

(eew, that felt so dirty...)

one of the children?

At least not to my knowledge.

Chechnya: Russian Atrocities Exposed
http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/cau/cau_200203_122_1_eng.txt

"The inhabitants of this southern Chechen village are so used to surviving from one Russian military "clean-up" operation to the next that they talk about their lives in a surreal fashion. "Do you remember, that was during clean-up number 19?" they say. Or "My neighbour was killed in clean-up number 23."

Stariye Atagi, 20 km south of Grozny, is one of the largest villages in Chechnya, with 15,000 inhabitants. The eight-day "passport checking operation" that occurred there two months ago was the twentieth such action since the start of the second Chechen war, and definitely the worst. The village is a troubled place, home to many Islamic militants, usually referred to as "Wahhabis", which makes it the object of sustained attention from Russian soldiers. But locals, telling the story of what happened, wonder if it is really the Islamists that they are after.

Clean-up number 20 lasted from January 28 to February 5. As in earlier operations, federal forces besieged the village, using heavy armour, aviation, artillery and a contingent of 5,000 troops. Inhabitants were forbidden not just to leave the village, but also to move from one street to another or from house to house. The soldiers came to the house of two sisters, Markha and Taus Musayeva, on Nagornaya Street at about 9 am on the morning of January 29. They are a poor family, who live off food they grow themselves and the pension of their old and almost bed-ridden father.

Markha said the soldiers immediately began demanding cash, but there was none. "Then we will screw you in front of your mum and dad," said the soldiers. They surrounded Markha, pushing her from one to the other like a punching bag, pulling her by the arms and hair. Tearing herself away, she rushed to the man who seemed to be the most senior, perhaps even an officer, wearing a black mask. Two fine calm green eyes looked at her and the man said, "Give us 300 roubles and we won't screw you."

..."

..he has alot of experience at this.

He figures it would be good practice. If a few dozen Russian kids get killed, what they hey, they aren't important (read Republican Americans) anyway. They could test out some neato weapons to use later in America, should there be a hostage incident.

It's about as logical and reasonable as everything else he's done.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,2763,1295513,00.html

"...

Mr Putin declared victory in early 2000 and again in mid-2002 - but like President George Bush, who prematurely announced "mission accomplished" in Iraq, Mr Putin has been repeatedly made to look weak and foolish by the Chechen rebels.

That is a dangerous way to treat the former KGB hard man and judo fan. Even at the best of times, Mr Putin's tolerance for opposition or dissent is limited. If provoked, he hits back. Yet now, despite his hurried return to base, it is unclear what he can do beyond resolving the immediate crisis in North Ossetia. Mr Putin refuses to countenance negotiations in Chechnya; the use of force has demonstrably failed; and his political machinations, including last weekend's bogus presidential election to replace an assassinated pro-Moscow placeman, are counterproductive.

In July, in apparent exasperation, Mr Putin sacked three of Russia's most senior generals, including Anatoly Kvashnin, chief of the general staff, over the setbacks in Chechnya. But this has simply led to the Kremlin being more intimately associated with continuing humiliations in the region.

Considered more broadly, the overall authority of a man whose approach to governance is increasingly authoritarian is under challenge on a range of fronts and not just in the Caucasus.

..."