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[Tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>]

Wars have a simple logic---kill or be killed. The grunts who do the 
fighting and dying have that choice, no other. The last man standing 
wins. The sweetly moralistic (make that never-shot-at) Eric Hall thinks 
he can change human nature. The U.S. intervened at 30,000 feet to 
minimize and finally stop Christian Serbs from wiping out Muslems in 
Bosnia---with no gratitude from the Muslim world whatsoever, and of 
course none from the Orthodox Serbs..

The U.S government has stupidly, and since 1948 called on Israel to 
employ sweet reason, not artillery,, tanks and aircraft to avoid 
extinction by circumscribing Arab states who have never given up the 
desire (or efforts) to drive the Israelis into the sea---and who have 
shown no inclination to stop The only reason the U.S. made such 
irrational demand on Israel is because their ox wasn't being gored. 
Israelis have the good sense and survival instinct to distinguish 
between politicobabble and military reality.

Similarly, the U.S. government has irrationally called on Russia to 
"negotiate with" Chechen/Ingusha "terrorists"---the most recent 
euphiemism for guerrillas. No, they aren't fighting because Stalin 
deported 600,000 of them to Central Asia in 1944---that stopped the tit 
for tat business until recently when the Chechen and Ingusha guerrillas 
decided an economically and militarily weaker Russia could be safely 
attacked because earlier attempts weren't met with the crushing force 
Stalin employed.
Putin isn't greatly impressed with U.S. moralistic exhortations---the 
Russian people won't permit it. He will be lucky if they don't throw him 
out for NOT doing the Stalin bit on the guerrillas and the population 
giving them cover after this schoolhouse massacre is to see if the 
Russians respond by total war. So be it.. It should be enertaining to 
watch.






September 08, 2004
Putin rips Washington's calls for diplomacy with Chechens


By Nicholas Kralev
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The United States and Russia clashed yesterday over a way to end the 
conflict in the breakaway republic of Chechnya, with Washington calling 
for a political solution and Moscow vowing to crush the separatist movement.
Days after a school siege in the Northern Ossetia region that claimed at 
least 350 lives, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West — and 
the United States in particular — of having a double standard when 
dealing with terrorism.
"Why don't you meet Osama bin Laden, invite him to Brussels or to the 
White House and engage in talks, ask him what he wants and give it to 
him so he leaves you in peace?" Mr. Putin told foreign reporters in 
Moscow late Monday.
"You find it possible to set some limitations in your dealings with 
these [terrorists]? So why should we talk to people who are child 
killers?" he said, according to one of the translations of his remarks 
in the British press.
About half of the casualties of last week's attack in the southern town 
of Beslan were children. Foreign fighters are said to have joined the 
Chechens in the attack. It came a week after two plane crashes and a 
Moscow subway station bombing, all of which have been attributed to 
Chechen terrorists.
Mr. Putin said the West should have "no more questions about our policy 
in Chechnya," where Russian forces have been fighting the separatists 
for more than a decade.
The Bush administration strongly condemned the school siege and called 
it an act of international terrorism.
"There really are no free passes in this struggle, this war," said 
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. "No free passes for countries, no 
free passes for individuals."
But the State Department said, "There must be a political settlement" to 
the Chechen conflict.
Challenging Mr. Putin's blanket definition of "terrorists" as everyone 
working for Chechen independence, the administration has made a 
distinction between the terrorists responsible for the attacks and 
legitimate separatist leaders.
"There is no question that the people carrying out these acts have no 
political affiliation; they have a terrorist affiliation, and one 
shouldn't confuse the two things," said State Department spokesman 
Richard Boucher.
Mr. Putin accused the United States of undermining his country's war on 
terrorism, citing meetings that mid-level U.S. officials have had with 
Chechen leaders.
"President Putin is making references to occasional visits, not one 
recently, by Chechen personalities to staff members in the State 
Department as part of our way of keeping informed about the situation in 
the region," Secretary of State Colin L. Powell told reporters.
Later, U.S. officials said the last formal meeting with a high-level 
Chechen leader took place in September 2001 and was hosted by the Russia 
desk at the State Department. They did not specify a name, but on Jan. 
23, 2002, the Russia desk director met with Ilyas Akhmadov during a 
conference in Washington.
Mr. Akhmadov, "foreign minister" in the self-styled government of 
separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov whom Moscow has accused of terrorism, 
was granted political asylum in the United States earlier this summer.
"As we have said before, we recognize Russia's sovereignty over 
Chechnya," Mr. Boucher told reporters on Jan. 24, 2002. "We did not meet 
with Mr. Akhmadov in any official capacity, but as an individual with 
particular insights into the Chechen conflict."
"We do have a policy that says we will meet with political officials, 
leaders who have different points of view. We've done that in the past. 
We may or may not do that in the future, depending on who these 
individuals might be," Mr. Boucher said yesterday.
"But we do not meet with terrorists and people who are involved in 
terrorism," he said.
Having repeatedly leveled harsh criticism of Moscow's wars in Chechnya 
in the 1990s, the United States became more sympathetic to Mr. Putin's 
challenge in the province after the September 11 terrorist attacks in 
the United States.
In 2002, the State Department designated several Chechen groups as 
foreign terrorist organizations.
The administration yesterday tried to shift the focus from the sharp 
disagreement over policy to solidarity with the victims in Beslan — and 
all of Russia — in the wake of last week's attack.
"We are absolutely united in condemning this horrible action that took 
place in this small town," Mr. Powell said.
Mr. Boucher said two C-130 U.S. cargo planes had flown medical supplies 
worth about $580,000, which were stockpiled in Germany, to Russia and 
planned an additional flight from Italy.
The U.S. ambassador to Russia, Alexander Vershbow, released $50,000 in 
emergency assistance, Mr. Boucher said.
In Moscow yesterday, about 130,000 people rallied outside the Kremlin in 
a government-sponsored demonstration against terrorism.
Mr. Putin said he would authorize an internal investigation into the 
tragedy in Beslan, but not a parliamentary or independent inquiry, 
because it would turn into a "political show."
"I want to establish the chronicle of events and find out who is 
responsible and might be punished," he said.