Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Suspected Chechen rebels take a school hostage.

Mephisto2 · 09-03-2004, 05:53 PM

I'm very familiar with the Entebbe action.

And there are many many differences. In fact, so many that the only real comparision is that they both concerned hostage situations.

1) There were, by some accounts, well over 1000 hostages in that school
2) The "resuce mission" was not planned, so criticising the Russians for the way it happened is simply ridiculous.
3) The hostage-takers included suicide bombers. Not really a "right way" to deal with them now, is there?
4) In Beslan, there were hundreds if not thousands of civilians surrounding the school, some of whom themselves opened fire on the terrorists during the initial firefight, thereby helping to precipitate the attack.
5) Everyone did not die, as you state.

A step by step analysis of what actually happened can be seen at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/h...n_s/html/1.stm

What happened was a tradgedy. The Russians could have handled it better. For one thing, the civilians should NOT have been anywhere near the school and the whole area should have been evacuated. The utter confusion during the initial assault helped a few of the terrorists to escape for example. This is unforgivable.

But at a fundamental level, it's far too easy for us to criticise the Russians for what happened. They didn't plan to storm the school, and only did so after the terrorists starting shooting fleeing children in the back and a bomb (on of their bombs) had gone off causing the roof to collapse.

I really hate arm-chair generals sitting at home in the safety and security of their own living rooms, tsk-tsking and saying "We could have done better".

ANYONE, indeed everyone, could have done better. There's always room for improvement. But that's always the case, isn't it? Hindsight is great after the fact.

I think they did the best they could in an impossible situation.

Mr Mephisto

09-03-2004, 05:53 PM	#41 (permalink)
Mephisto2 Junkie	I'm very familiar with the Entebbe action. And there are many many differences. In fact, so many that the only real comparision is that they both concerned hostage situations. 1) There were, by some accounts, well over 1000 hostages in that school 2) The "resuce mission" was not planned, so criticising the Russians for the way it happened is simply ridiculous. 3) The hostage-takers included suicide bombers. Not really a "right way" to deal with them now, is there? 4) In Beslan, there were hundreds if not thousands of civilians surrounding the school, some of whom themselves opened fire on the terrorists during the initial firefight, thereby helping to precipitate the attack. 5) Everyone did not die, as you state. A step by step analysis of what actually happened can be seen at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/h...n_s/html/1.stm What happened was a tradgedy. The Russians could have handled it better. For one thing, the civilians should NOT have been anywhere near the school and the whole area should have been evacuated. The utter confusion during the initial assault helped a few of the terrorists to escape for example. This is unforgivable. But at a fundamental level, it's far too easy for us to criticise the Russians for what happened. They didn't plan to storm the school, and only did so after the terrorists starting shooting fleeing children in the back and a bomb (on of their bombs) had gone off causing the roof to collapse. I really hate arm-chair generals sitting at home in the safety and security of their own living rooms, tsk-tsking and saying "We could have done better". ANYONE, indeed everyone, could have done better. There's always room for improvement. But that's always the case, isn't it? Hindsight is great after the fact. I think they did the best they could in an impossible situation. Mr Mephisto