The Kashmir "freedom movement" is another lost cause, along with Chechnya imho. They going the same way as a lot of other sad but lost causes.
These wars are just being used to train and harden new "freedom fighters" to increase global conflict.
Russia, The USA, India and a whole host of smaller countries are going to crush this B/S once and for all. (hopefully). I can imagine there will be lots of casualties on all sides over time, but those causes will die off first. It's now a single war of attrition.
And guys from my country will be going there too. Like this one.
news.telegraph.co.uk
This is most unfortunate, buts looks like it's going to happen. The Muslim communities here need to better reply to Baroness Thatchers remarks (I rarely agree her views btw). I realise newspapers have to be responsible on these matters, the media has a crucial role to play...peace not war.
ananova.com
Here is an old news story to illustrate the point.
cdi.org
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The Changing Face of the Chechnya War
By Tomas Valasek, Senior Analyst, tvalasek@cdi.org
Things seem to be going well for Russian forces in Chechnya. Most of the republic is in Moscow's hands, the artillery assaults against Chechen towns and villages were all but suspended, and the military feels so confident it sent nearly half its troops back home. Russian generals declared victory on at least half a dozen occasions.
But the war may be far from over. In fact, it appears that the Russians may have won a battle but lost the war.
What the Russian invasion accomplished is turning a war for independence into jihad, a religious war. There was not one but two conflicts in Chechnya. The one that the world heard the most about pitted the Russian military against virtually everybody in Chechnya, civilians notwithstanding. But among the troops fighting on the Chechen side, another conflict raged: a war over the republic's identity, its religion, and its ties to radical Islamic states. On the one side were people like the Kremlin's recently appointed representative in Chechnya, former mufti (religious leader) Akhmad Kadyrov. Kadyrov fought for Chechnya's independence in 1994-96 but opposed the harsh form of Islam propagated by some clerics and fighters in Chechnya. On the other side were commanders, many of who started as pro-independence, essentially non-religious figures but increasingly turned to radical Islam for money, troops, and the moral boost needed to sustain their fight.
Russian actions have made the relatively moderate personalities politically irrelevant. Chechnya's president, Aslan Maskhadov, is indicted by Russian courts and is being ignored by his own commanders. Others have chosen to cooperate with Russian troops, which will likely discredit them in the eyes of ordinary Chechens. It is possible that Kadyrov may yet succeed in convincing the war-weary population of Chechnya to cooperate with Moscow. The Chechens have suffered unspeakably in this decade, and most are ready for the war to end. More likely, however, Kadyrov's efforts will be frustrated by the remaining fighters.
The rhetoric of the most influential commanders reflects the changed nature of the war from a fight for independence to a religious struggle. Writing about the 1994-96 war, a former Financial Times correspondent in Chechnya and one of the foremost experts on the region, Anatol Lieven, noted that "the Chechen struggle of the 1990s began as overwhelmingly a national or nationalist one." Religion, always a factor in the Muslim Chechnya, served to support the drive for independence rather than as an end to itself.
But religious radicalism began creeping in even before the current war. Its simple, clear message resonated among hordes of displaced fighters with no economic opportunities in a country where very little was rebuilt after the first war. Religion launched the second war in Chechnya after three years. The August 1999 invasion of Dagestan by fighters from Chechnya (most of who, contrary to press reports, were Dagestanis trained in Chechnya rather than Chechens themselves) precipitated the Russian intervention in Dagestan and later in Chechnya proper.
As Russian tanks and jets forced Chechen fighters into increasing isolation in the republic's mountainous south, the relative importance of religion and religious organizations grew. They provided hope as the odds of success grew longer and longer. Islamic schools outside Chechnya provided moral support and, apparently, troops and weapons as well. As even the Chechen fighters admit, dozens of foreigners have fought and died in their ranks.
"During the fighting, three foreign Mujahideen, Halil of Turkey, Zakariyah of Turkey and Al Muthana of the Arabian Peninsula, protected the retreat of their brothers and fought off the hordes of Russian troops," wrote Qoqaz.net, a Chechnya support site, on July 10. "Halil was the first to be martyred after being killed by a mine; Zakariyah was also martyred." </b?
The rising influence of Islam was dramatically demonstrated on June 6 when the first of the Chechen suicide bombers struck a Russian army barracks.
Suicide bombers a staple of the fighting in Lebanon and Palestine - were unheard of in the 1994-96 Chechnya war. Since June 6, more such attacks have followed, including a coordinated strike on July 3 involving at least three separate bombers. Qoqaz.net reports that at least 500 volunteered for martyrdom on these suicide missions.
The guerilla warfare to which the remaining fighters resorted requires few supplies. New recruits from abroad are making up losses among the fighters.
The ever-shrinking Russian presence in Chechnya is unlikely to stop the flow of people and arms. Nor will the fighters be stopped by the prospect remote at best - of Russo-Chechen accommodation. Their goals have shifted from gaining independence for Chechnya to establishing an Islamic state on the territory of not only Chechnya but also neighboring Dagestan a goal unacceptable to Russia, not to mention the Dagestan government.
The war, proclaimed to be over weeks ago, is thus likely to continue at a lower intensity until the Russian forces are worn down. The war in Chechnya has awakened forces that will neither compromise nor shrink from utter self-destruction. |
