Government and terrorists see eye to eye

The world is a twisted and evil place. This is common knowledge to almost anyone who is even vaguely aware of world events. But it takes something extremely malevolent to shock people out of their everyday stupor. An event such as this took place in Beslan Russia when 31 men and two women stormed the Beslan School and took 1,500 men, women and children captive. Explosives were placed around the school and the hostages were given no food or water for three days. Eventually, the Russian government ordered troops to storm the school, and in the ensuing fight between the Chechen terrorists and Russian Special Forces a bomb was detonated. As the hostages fled, the Chechen terrorists fired at them. In the aftermath of this bloodbath, the final death toll was 330, 171 of whom were children. The families of those killed in the explosion are now forced to sort through the charred remains of their loved ones in a vain attempt to identify their children and give them a proper burial. This is a dark day for humanity.

While some might write this event off as a mere terrorist act and look down upon those who committed this heinous crime against humanity as simply evil people with no respect for human life, there is more to this story than meets the eye. While taking hostages has always been seen as cowardly, it is even more deplorable to deliberately target a facility, such as a school, where the majority of people inside are women and children. But it must also be said that the Chechens demands were that Russian troops in Chechnya be removed.

It is common for the Russian government to solve hostage situations using the bloodiest and most dangerous means necessary. When Chechen terrorists took hostages at a Russian theater the Russian government pumped large amounts of potentially lethal gas into the building in order to render the terrorists unconscious. The plan worked except that the Russian government had no way of getting the large number of hostages to the hospital. As a result the hostages were put on city busses with no medical aid and the majority of them died en route to the hospital.

This policy of “kill the terrorists at all costs,” has been a staple in the Russian anti-terrorist program for some time.

While some might say the Russian government was right in storming the school, few can defend the government's policy of taking the families of the terrorists and imprisoning them for safe-keeping as a legitimate course of action but this form of reverse hostage taking is fundamentally wrong and it brings the mighty Russian government down to the level of the terrorists that we despise. In a world where governments take hostage the families of those that oppose them, can there be any vestige of hope for humanity?

Yet we cannot so easily dismiss the tactics used by the Russian government. Some will say that the Russian government is inherently insensitive towards its own people and towards humanity. But didn't the United States imprison the wives of the missing leading Baathist members? Make no mistake, our own government is just as bad as any other government around the world. We just cover it up better and hide our evil little deeds behind patriotism and a waving red, white and blue flag. Now the real question is: what is more inherently evil, someone who takes hostages as a last desperate act to free their country, or someone who takes hostages in order to use them as bargaining chips to keep the country they have invaded under their heel.

Daniel Bracke is a second year english major at CSULB.