EuroSpike,
Have you ever been to Russia? Well its pretty damn scary when there are constant threats of terrorist attacks in the major cities. When a subway station blows up where your uncle walks through every day and isn't there by a miracle it is pretty scary. When an apartment complex blows up thats only a couple of miles away, its pretty scary. (All of this happened while I was in Moscow, where I stay upon return trips back to Russia). Also murdering children and civilian women in attacks in other places isn't something that I look up to. That's why I must say that until you have lived it, you cannot say that the Russian soldiers aren't justified no matter how brutal their tactics are. After actions like the Chechen terrorists have been doing for over a decade and the overall tension that has been in that region for centuries I must agree with some people that are currently conscripted and are professional soldiers that I know. If they are ordered on "zachistki" operations (cleansing) and the people they take, which are male, are never heard from again so be it.
Of course the sometime rape and robbing of civilians is an awful thing and its a major reason I look down upon Russia's military for. But, in all honesty the murder of school children is a hell of a lot worse. Part of my family used to live in Grozny and they got out before it got too bad in the first Chechen conflict. I've heard their stories. It's awful. Also for people that believe that Russia brought the terrorist attacks upon it's self I have a good factoid: They (Chechens) started slaughtering non Islamic, Russian Chechens before the war even started.
I quote (
http://faculty.ncwc.edu/toconnor/429/429lect13.htm) "The first Chechen war (1994-96) followed the Soviet collapse and a simultaneous Islamic revival in Chechnya where Islamic Chechens started to kill ethnically mixed Russian-Chechens, one family at a time, and the Russians felt they had no choice but to intervene. 100,000 civilians were killed in this war".
Then I quote the same source "the second Chechen war (1999-present) was precipitated by the Chechen incursion into Dagestan (a Russian Federation country to the East strategically located next to oil in the Caspian Sea), but Dagestan was also a country Chechnya wanted to Islamicize, and did, somewhat successfully, since about half the population in Dagestan has joined Chechnya in its "holy war" against Russia and the other half of the population are refugees attempting to flee somewhere. International aid organizations attempting to help the refugees are handicapped by the prevalence of kidnapping in the region, and Chechen-Dagestani rebels have not hesitated to kidnap or execute any relief workers, journalists, or foreign nationals who enter the area. Dagestani government forces fight alongside Russian soldiers, but mainly do border patrol work. So far, 60,000 civilians have been killed in this war, and it shows no signs of ending, although the Russians have declared it officially over and want several hundred refugees in Ingushetia to return to Chechnya".
Also "Hit-and-run attacks are primarily used against the Russian military and Russian civilians. Chechen terrorism demonstrates an amazing ability to defeat the toughest of Russian security measures, presumably through deception, bribes, advanced technology, or inside intelligence. Roadside bombs, for example, are often placed along where a target is sure to travel, and Chechen terrorist training camps [video available at
http://www.intellnet.org/resources/chechen_terrorists/6.html] are not only well-equipped, but technologically sophisticated, as e-mail and cell phone communication is quite common. Suicide attacks seem only to be used as a last resort, or at times when public sympathy is needed. Extortion, gun-running, counterfeiting, and kidnapping-for-ransom are internal sources of revenue, and external funding is received by al-Qaeda, Islamic charities, and reportedly Saudi Arabia. Popular support for the Chechen cause among the Muslim world is widespread. The Arabic satellite news network al-Jazeera frequently broadcasts reports of Russian abuses, often accompanied by graphic footage of dead or wounded Chechen civilians. The United States stands by Russia's right to subdue the Chechen rebellion, and the U.S. frequently downplays Russian human rights abuses in Chechnya. At any given time, Chechen terrorists hold about 700 international hostages, and at least 4 American citizens have been taken hostage and killed. Some Chechen terrorist ideology is strongly anti-American".
