the horror of this russian terrorist attack at the elementary school is really getting to me. i've been mostly involved in weeding-related events here, and the news channels in my hotel room are completely fixated on florida and francis. luckily i can access online news sources and read about other things. a fellow weeding guest at a brunch i attending this morning noted that this attack seemed to cross a line that even 9-11 did not cross. the 9-11 hyjackers were largely confined to the cockpit when they murdered their victims, whereas the perpetrators in russia spent almost three days looking children in the eyes as they starved them to the point of collapse and plotted their eventual death.
i expect the russians will do their best to convince the world this is an al-qaeda operation. maybe it was, but it seems just as likely that it was not. either way, putin will probably start a new offensive in chechnya, he's got to do something. but i doubt leveling grozny again will deter much. but what can a politician do when his people suffer a genuine tragedy and demand immediate forceful action?
i have no answers here. but it seems that taking no action is better than taking bad counter-productive actions. but doing nothing also happens to be politically unpaletable.
