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| The Man | |
True to form, Vladimir (hard-man) Putin sent in the Russian
special forces to take out the Muslim extremists holding 820 hostages demanding
(you guessed it) their own Islamic homeland. Apparently the
Chechen terrorists didn't like seeing their populations being repressed by a
post-soviet Russia, and wanted to oppress their population with a their own
1500 year old fanatical ideology instead. Of course over a hundred hostages died along with the extremists, but what's a
hundred serfs when you command 145 million? And even the survivors are now facing severe problems from the poison gas used
by the Russians to subdue the terrorists before bursting in on them. Media
reports are that it was something which caused 'extreme drowsiness and vomiting'.
Apparently Russian special forces thought it was safer shooting at someone half
asleep and vomiting a lot. The Russians won't say what gas they used. Rumors are that it was some old
nerve gas left over from the cold war, or some kind of previously undeployed
hallucinogenic drug. Forget Iraq, sounds like Russia has a WMD program
itself! And the outcome of all this? It will deter more attempts to do the same
thing. 50 Muslims died in order to kill just over a hundred civilians. A
infidel:believer ratio of 2:1 is not going to defeat Russia (there aren't
enough Chechens), and nor is it going to endear the Chechens to the rest of the
world. The US will now agree to
turn a blind eye to further atrocities in Chechnya if Russia stops objecting to
the Iraqi invasion: "I won't
objecting to you killing Muslims if you don't object to us doing it
too". They'll get along fine. Despite the incompetence of the Russian special forces, Putin made the
intelligent political
choice. Chechnya will continue to be a thorn in Russia's side, but this episode
will stop other remnants of the empire seceding, and after the outrage of the
Muscovites subsides, Putin's operation will be judged a success. The Arabs have a saying "My enemy's enemy is my friend". Who would have
thought that Islam would have been so instrumental in improving US/Soviet relations after the
Cold War? Two belligerent
super-powers putting aside their differences to crush an ideology even more
outdated and repressive than communism - sounds like
Islam really is a catalyst for peace. Thank you, Allah.
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