Portents of America’s Future ?

Following up on an earlier posting about Chechnya, I was pleasantly surprised to find an in-depth article about Russia’s reaction to the Beslan massacre at
The Christian Science Monitor and another viewpoint at alt.muslim.

For me the most ominous note in the Monitor article was the one that noted that “Critics charge that the brutality of Russian forces in Chechnya has itself enabled radicals, and paved the way for support by groups such as Al Qaeda. When Putin came to power in 1999, he vowed to “rub out” the Chechen rebels “in the outhouse.” But today terror attacks continue and even his policy of “Chechenization” is in disarray.” Sound familiar? And equally ineffective?

The alt.muslim article provides more background from a muslim viewpoint, while a comment points out that parts of the Islamic community are beginning to speak out against these kinds of terrorist tactics.