Life is cheap in Russia.

A few years ago I read 'Stalingrad', about (drum-roll) the seige of Stalingrad in the brutal winter of 1943.

The German Army rolled into Russia that fall and, seeing that the city was named for their leader, the Russians couldn't let it fall.

The Russian army had some unique ways of 'enforcing discipline'. Sometimes they'd line their men up and walk down the row, shooting every 10th man in the face. This was to reinforce the supremacy of the command structure.

When things got really bad, they put a line of NKVD (political police) just behind their own lines to shoot deserters.

When things got really-really bad, they they put a line of NKVD just in front of their own lines to shoot anyone who might consider surrender.

Kruschev got high marks for brutality in these assignments and rose thru the party on his 'merits'...

This is the 'legacy' of thought that still rules over there.

QTip 04 Sep 2004

And what, pray tell, would be a better strategy oh great 21st century Sun Tzu? Give in to their demands? Even the French aren't that stupid. Maybe send in John Edwards to sue them into submission.
(??? - Whoops you slipped off topic there with boilerplate GOP talking points)

But seriously, you can help out if you're able to spare a ruble.

Dear Png
You seem to imply that there are no half-measures between those two equally impoverished options (all-out aggression or limp aquiesence). So the end to any armed hostage situation, for you, will always be a cadaver-strewn blitzkrieg.
You're not aiming very high.

Please see the resolution of the 1996 Lima Peru Japanese Embassy event, in which, despite 700 hostages, only 2 soldiers and 1 hostage were killed. It's precision was commended for not producing the usual high bodycount of stupid, brutal force.

Your assuredness that there couldn't be a better solution than dumb force is a opportunity for self-growth. Often pople get exasperated, angry and violent when they reach the end of their intelligence/reason. If you develop your verbal and thinking skills you may find a way out of that prison.
jpeg

johnny_png 05 Sep 2004

Maybe in a country so massive with such a large population, 350 stiff citizens is seen as no big loss, or perhaps more cynically a step towards population control.

jpeg 05 Sep 2004

The Lima affair ended with the ... AHEM .. storming of the embassy by Peruvian soldiers. I guess that's "smart" force?

But this is apples and oranges. The f*ckers in Russia were a differrent breed of thug. Unlike the leftist asswipes in Peru, they, the Chechens, had armed themsulves with suicide belts, and were willing to die and take as many (children.. not soldiers or government officials.. children) with them as they can. Sure they could have played it out longer, Waco style, but current reports are showing that the Chechens had other ideas:

Russian authorities said they stormed the building after the militants set off explosions and fired shots as emergency teams approached to collect the bodies of several men killed earlier. They said the hostage-takers had given them permission to take the corpses away. Witnesses quoted by Russian media said the militants opened fire on fleeing hostages and then began to escape themselves.

Your original post makes it sound like it's Russia's fault entirely, the guys (and gals) with plastic explosives stuffed in their fuzzy Russian hats and the barrels of their rifles firmly planted between a couple of pigtails were an irrelevant side note.

Personally, I would have sent in McGarrett armed only with a bull horn and his wits, while Danno and Kohno covered his ass from the rooftops. But, alas, Jack Lord is dead and Kohno is working at a Red Lobster on Oahu.

johnny_png 06 Sep 2004

Oh, and thanks for editing my previous post. Nice to see you believe in open discussion. I am honored to have been censored by someone as smart and even keeled as you.

johnny_png 06 Sep 2004