Terror in Russia

I haven't written about the recent terror events in Russia, the two planes being bombed or the subway explosion yesterday. Today, more bad news:

Armed attackers have seized a school in southern Russia and ITAR-TASS news agency reports as many as 400 people are being held hostage -- half of them children. Some of the more than a dozen hostage-takers in the town of Beslan in North Ossetia are reportedly wearing explosives belts used in suicide bombings.

First, I want to say that I deplore these tactics in general and this, horrendous attack on a school in particular. This is barbarism, plain and simple. I haven't written much on Russia because I don't know a whole lot about the Chechen situation. I know that the Chechen rebels have ties to Al-Qaida and that they want separation from Russia. I also know that they have wide support in the region. Russia has also brutally repressed this rebellion, and probably fueled it, with some pretty nasty attacks of the Chechen people. Anyone who thinks we have been too soft on rebels in Iraq can look to Chechnya as a map of how well the other way works. One of the problems with Chechnya is that it confers some degree of legitimacy on Al-Qaida. The Chechens probably do have honest grievances with the Russian government and it seems likely that elections have not been conducted in a fair manner to redress this problem. Obviously out gunned, if Chechen aspirations are to be satisfied they will have to conduct asymmetrical warfare or hope that peaceful protests will solve their problems. Peaceful protests have a mixed history, while they worked for Ghandi against the British, they failed miserably against the Chinese in Tieneman Square. I don't know that they would do much better against the Russian Government. My point here, is that Chechnya will give legitimacy to terror groups in the Arab World (and to some extent the Western World as well). Their current barbaric tactic may lessen that somewhat, but underneath it all, if they have real grievances and there is real injustice that needs to be corrected we must find a way to solve this problem. To complicate matters, this must be done in a fashion that is not seen as a reward, or a capitulation to terror or the terror tactics will be seen to be effective. The problem is a Gordian knot, but I am not sure that Alexander's solution is correct here.