Terrorists have "jumped the shark" in Russia
The three-day hostage siege at a school in southern Russia ended in chaos and bloodshed Friday, after witnesses said Chechen militants set off bombs and Russian commandos stormed the building. Hostages fled in terror, many of them children who were half-naked and covered in blood. Officials said the toll was at least 250. Early Saturday, 531 people remained hospitalized, including 283 children 92 of the youngsters in "very grave" condition.
The Command Post has constructed a timeline of events.
Just horrible!
The photos make me SICK! (except for the ones showing policemen and troops being heroic and carrying tiny babies, which make my eyes water).
It's time for the WORLD to say ENOUGH!
We need the equivalent of a Hague or Geneva Convention to declare WORLD WAR on terrorism, and establish new rules of engagement.
If interested, see the ACE PROPOSAL in the contintuation.
Here's the ACE proposal (off the top of my head - pls. help me refine it):
1. EVERYONE (worldwide) agree to STOP NEGOTIATING with terrorists.
2. As soon as a hostage situation develops, call in the necessary manpower and firepower ASAP.
3. In the interim time until the resources are in position and ready to deploy, entertain the peaceful surrender of the terrorists AFTER they release the hostages. Advise them that is their ONLY option (short of being killed/captured in the immediate future). NOTHING ELSE
4. As soon as the resources are ready, hit the location where the hostages are held with debilitating but non-lethal gases such as CS (some kind of less irritating gas would be even better.)
5. Storm the facility, shouting for everyone to hit the floor (like the Israelis did at Entebbe). Shoot anyone who does not comply (with the exception of kids or elderly who are obviously not terrorists and may be too shocked to comply).
6. Use cable ties to handcuff anyone who might even possibly be a terrorist (since some of the terrorists may have changed into civilian clothes to look like hostages.) Use triage to treat the wounded ASAP.
7. Through a questioning process later, sort out the innnocents from the perpetrators. Release the innocents (with apologies for the rough treatment) ASAP. Send the bad guys to Gitmo. Give them a speedy trial and execute them in a way at least as terrible as the death experienced by any of their hostages. If they (wisely) released the hostages and surrendered, hold them at Gitmo for a trial when you get around to it.
What if the hostages say they'll blow the place up if you storm it? I'm still working on that. These details would be worked out at the Convention, by smarter and more experienced people than myself.
If EVERYONE would adopt this approach, the terrorists would soon learn that taking hostages accomplishes nothing other than further villifying them in the eyes of decent people of the World. The number of hostage situations would go way down.
As long as some continue to try to make deals to save the innocent or avoid some threatened action, the terrorists will continue to see hostage taking as an effective methodology.
The 82nd Airborne has a slightly-tongue-in-cheek phrase which shocks the bleeding hearts: "Kill them all and let the Lord sort them out." We don't have to go quite that far, but we have to face the cruel but real fact that some innocent hostages may die, but the long-term result for the World will be FAR LESS hostage deaths.
Even some of the Breslan citizens understand this concept:
"We expected this to happen," said Valentina Sagutonova, a retired policewoman, referring to the standoff's end. "We just hoped it would happen as soon as possible. These people cannot be treated in any other way. We've been living with them all our lives, and believe me, they can only be dealt with with brute force."
Would I want this procedure to be used if I'm ever taken hostage, you ask? Using John Kerry's MO, my answer to you is: "HELL YES!" If the terrorists were on the phone with negotiators, I'd be yelling "Come on in NOW and kill the Bastards!" (pardon my French). "Save the risk to your men. Just drop a bomb on the place!" (I've lived nearly three score years. That's enough. I'd gladly sacrifice two or three decades in an increasingly crazy world to teach the Islamic radicals that we're no longer like Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton made us appear and John Kerry would if he were not self-destructing into a full-blown mental case and had a prayer of getting elected.)
When will the World learn you can't negotiate with terrorists? Even the US, which likes to say it never negotiates with terrorists, often does behind the scenes. SCREW THAT! (Sorry. I'll blame it on the java.)
Would I want this procedure to be used if my kid was a hostage? That's a tougher question, but I should give the same answer. I might not, but in that mental state, I should not be the person making the decision.
Yeah, I'm as tired of the "Jumped the Shark" phrase as you are. It's about as worn out as calling everything "something-gate." But, it's still more dramatic than simply saying they WENT TOO FAR this time.
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