Neolex, yes the Russian response in Nord-Ost and Beslan was fairly incompetent. But the people who killed all the kids were Chechen terrorists. No conspiracy. Just Chechens. The same kinds of people who flew airplanes into buildings or blew apart Beijing bus riders.

The conspiracy-mongers of 9/11, Beslan, the Moscow Theater, and Moscow apartment bombings (eerily similar to the Blind Sheik “bridge and tunnel” plots btw) all have one thing in common — refusal to acknowledge the reality that terrifies them — that poor rabbles have an ability to kill with impunity citizens of major powers with no comeback.

The only “conspiracy” was that of the terrorists. Incompetence on 9/11, Beslan, Nord-Ost, etc. made things worse, but were not the primary movers.

The killers at Beslan shot children who cried. Wired the place with explosives, shot parents on whims. These were terrorists who planned to die and enjoyed killing people. Same with Nord-Ost. Same with 9/11.

ALL wealthy, modern, “European” style nations (this includes China) are struggling how to deal with mostly Islamic thugs who like killing and think that killing enough people will cause the powerful nations to submit. All this PC stuff has encouraged … Muslims in China to battle it out with police using guns and grenades!!!

No one is immune here. Nor should anyone fool themselves that Putin does not have a lot of support since Russians don’t see much else working. After Putin went ruthless and leveled Grozny, the attacks on Russia stopped. Unlike the Yeltsin years. Broadly speaking, Russians are afraid, they see Putin as the tough guy who will keep the Chechen-types at bay. With Georgia as a useful example. Russians are not Frenchmen nor Italians nor Spaniards nor Britons. They live in a much tougher neighborhood and will choose a John Gotti if he keeps other thugs at bay.

OT: Sarkozy looks the fool now.