I thought the bombing of Yugoslavia was a bad idea, right from the first bomb, George, and of course the handling of that whole sorry episode makes the US -- and the other NATO countries -- vulnerable to the charge of hypocrisy if they get too "critical" of the Russian action in Chechnya.
At the same time, what should they do, in your opinion? Keep quiet, because they too showed insufficient concern for civilians?
And bear in mind that this time around the damage in Chechnya -- and the toll in lives -- has already been much more extensive than in Yugoslavia, relative to the size of their territory & populations. That is on top of the estimated 80,000 dead during the first go-round, the destruction of virtually all of Chechnya's hospitals, schools, factories, you name it.
Even before the "second round," Grozny was a city of ruins. No rebuilding at all. And I was amazed to hear that the Russians have been systematically bombing the village of Serzhen-Yurt (Khattab has his training camp near there). The last time I drove through Serzhen-Yurt, in 1996, there were only nine houses standing! I counted them! What the HELL is left to bomb? And if the villagers had managed to rebuild, can you imagine the psychological trauma of going through all that again? It is a wonder that the Chechens are not all stark raving mad..I should say it is a wonder that all the residents of the republic are not stark raving mad, because before this last exodus of refugees there were still quite a few Russians, Nogais, Tatars, etc., left. And the non-Chechens aren't getting any "special treatment," any more than they did in 1994-1996. Bombs don't pick their victims. -
In other words, we are talking about total obliteration here.
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