To: John Lacelle who wrote (14906 ) 10/11/1999 9:12:00 PM From: jbe Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 17770
John, forgive me, but it seems to me you are using the same loopy logic here that many Russians, alas,are now using... 1) "They" did not "execute" six international Red Cross workers a few weeks ago. The Red Cross workers were murdered three years ago, and nobody really knows who did it. In any event, the people of Chechnya were in despair: they wanted the Red Cross to stay, yet they knew perfectly well that somebody was trying to drive all humanitarian organizations out of Chechnya, to isolate the country & its inhabitants. 2) You say "they" keep setting off car bombs in Moscow. What car bombs?? What "they"?? Are you referring to the apartment block bombings? The ones that "Chechen terrorists" allegedly are responsible for? Maybe they are -- but no proof whatsoever has been produced so far. And do you really believe in collective responsibility and collective guilt? "They" blew up "our" sons & daughters; so "we" have the right to blow up "their" sons and daughters? An eye for an eye? "They" tried to drag Dagestan into the conflict. Some Chechen & Dagestani radicals did. The venture was not sanctioned by the Maskhadov government (although I agree it should have been more forceful in saying so, and in at least rebuking publicly those responsible), or supported by the general population. I think many ordinary Chechens understand why the world is not helping them. But remember, it didn't help them in 1994-1996 either. And bear in mind that "they" -- the schoolteachers, the farmers, the children, the doctors, the garbagemen, etc. -- have suffered more than anyone else at the hands both of their own "bandits" and of the Russian "generals." Talk about being between a rock and a hard place! Joan