Whitewash

The news out of Beslan just gets worse and worse, if that was even possible. Not a mere "hostage-taking", we find that in this carefully-planned, calculated, and prepared-for operation, that the children -- by design, the children! -- were systematically tortured, gratuitously terrorized, and much worse that I can't even describe,

for the sheer pleasure of it.

We must realize that these Islamic terrorists have no real demands and simply wish to stage a spectacle of slow-motion mass death, culminating in their "martyrdom." Therefore, any "hostages" should consider themselves already dead and react accordingly -- and "negotiators" must stand aside, with assault troops ordered in immediately before they can entrench themselves.

For a tale of heroism in the school, see here. Local updates are here.

What is most incredible is the media whitewash of this atrocity. Most use the bland euphemism "Chechen separatist", not telling you that Chechnya already has a degree of autonomy and the "separatists" aren't struggling for freedom from Russian tyrrany, but rather for the freedom to impose Sharia and create and Islamic state, ala the Taliban.

Chechnya is the front line in al-Qaeda's plans to resurrect the Islamic Caliphate; has been for years. This is not some local squabble in a far-away place, but an integral part of the world-wide Islamc jihad movement, and such an operation to murder non-Muslim children is part of their play-book and can be sprung anywhere, even here.

This was a professional al-Qaeda operation, complete with a squad of Arab "holy warriors".

But make this connection? Identify these murderers as terrorists, let alone Islamic ones? No. As Daniel Pipes (of the Presidential Institute of Peace) points out, the press has been using terms such as "captors", "commandos", "group", "hostage-takers", and "activists", among many others.

I have even seen "armed gang" and "masked men and women"!!!

Why, it was just like a fun Halloween party, with masks!

The inestimable Mark Steyn points out that

weepy candlelight vigils were a cop-out: the issue wasn't whether you were sad about the dead people but whether you wanted to do something about it. Three years on, that's still the difference. We can all get upset about dead children, but unless you're giving honest thought to what was responsible for the slaughter your tasteful elegies are no use. Nor are the hyper-rationalist theories about "asymmetrical warfare".

Thus this story about demonstrations in Russia makes Steyn's point, stating

But while the emotion was genuine, the officially-approved rally was also brief and felt choreographed, prompting unfavourable comparisons with the uninhibited outpouring of grief seen in Spain after the March 11 attacks.

That's because the Russian demonstrations aren't meant as a signal of appeasement and surrender, as they were in Spain, with all the absurd "PACE" flags and "No to Terror" statements with nothing to back them up. Rather than staging feel-good grief rallies, the Russians were drawing parallels with 1945 and pledging Victory.

The Russians are worrying more about what they're going to do about it than about putting on a parade.