I did not respond because I did not want this thread to deteriorate into a mud slinging US Bush hating political thread. Read the following from Diane Francis in today's Financial Post.
Acts of terrorism against Russia and France last week are more likely to win the presidency for George Bush than whatever happened at the Republic National Convention or on the election stump over the weekend.
The massacre of children, parents and teachers in a Russian school is not only a wake-up call to Moscow but another one to the world: The terrorist threat by Islamist fanatics is clearly a worldwide problem and not a concoction, as some anti-Bush critics maintain, of jingoistic or war-mongering Republicans.
"We showed weakness and weak people are beaten," said Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, sounding and looking like a Slavic version of George Bush in his Sunday night address to the nation.
Then he acceded to the wisdom of Washington indirectly.
"We have to admit that we failed to recognize the complexity and danger of the processes going on in our country and the world as a whole," the Russian leader said. "At any rate, we failed to react to them adequately."
Not surprisingly, the first authoritative poll this week shows Bush with an 11-point lead.
In another informal scrum, a Russian official admitted the United States had done the best job in the world in terms of protecting itself against future attacks.
"Nothing has happened since 9/11, which is impressive," he told a Russian wire service.
Last week also saw terrorists take aim at another "weak" nation, France, which led the attack against America's dramatic efforts to staunch terrorism worldwide. Two of its most prominent journalists were kidnapped and have been held for days by terrorists, who have made a succession of demands.
First, the terrorists threatened to behead them last week unless France lifted its discriminatory ban on headscarves and other religious symbols in public schools.
Threats were greeted with shock by the French public and leaders, surprised that France would be targeted by Iraqi terrorists, given its opposition to the United States and its allies in Iraq.
French Muslim moderates were dispatched to Iraq immediately in an attempt to negotiate the release of the two journalists. But this did not work.
The two were handed over to another terrorist group, which now wants US$5-million in ransom plus a promise from the French government to ban any business dealings with the new Iraqi regime.
The lesson here is that even appeasers like France are not exempt from this malevolence. Spain, which withdrew from the Iraqi coalition forces after its 9/11 train bombing massacre of 1,200 people, will also eventually learn that backing down is the worst strategy possible when it comes to terrorists.
Russia has been a special target, partly because it is a poor country without proper security. The school holocaust was also preceded by suicide bombs in a Moscow subway and two jetliners. A total of 450 Russians have died in two weeks thus far.
"This [the slaughter in the school house] was a terrorist act that was inhuman and unprecedented in its cruelty," said Putin.
Russia also began to gravitate toward the American cause two months ago when Putin backed up Bush policies by revealing that Russian intelligence also played a role in the Iraq situation by informing its American counterparts that Saddam Hussein was planning several terrorist attacks against the United States in its territory. By doing so, he bolstered those who believe that a "pre-emptive" attack against Iraq was not only prudent but necessary to avoid more bloodshed.
The point of the weekend's events is that the world increasingly realizes that it faces danger from a crazed Islamist guerrilla army bent on destabilizing, frightening and destroying all non-believers. These jihadis are sociopathic, spending their childhoods in religious boarding schools where they were beaten and brainwashed by malevolent clerics bent on creating a global theocracy.
The Russian crisis, beamed into American living rooms, not only justifies what George Bush has done to avenge and protect the United States and the world, but makes sending a message to future terrorists compelling.
To many more American voters, it will hopefully become clear that America's tough talk is appropriate, its tough action totally justified and that voting Republican is the safest bet.
As for Russia, the message has finally come through loud and clear.
Russia is a battleground in this war because it has plenty of oil and nuclear technology and control over both is what Osama bin Laden and his clandestine army covet. But this weekend, the world may have grown closer together in the wake of another hideous terrorist slaughter. |
