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Mosnews.com
www.MosNews.com
September 3, 2004
Don’t Hide Your Head in the Sand
Yevgeny Kiselyov
Editor-in-Chief
Moskovskie Novosti weekly
It’s an ungrateful task to comment on any crisis still in progress, when the situation changes every minute. I’m writing these words on Thursday night, right before the last pages are sent off for printing; I have no idea what will be happening to the hostages in Beslan by tomorrow, when you read this issue.
President Putin says that all actions by the authorities be undertaken with the understanding that preserving people’s lives and well-being is top priority. FSB representatives say they rule out force in freeing the hostages and that prolonged negotiations are forthcoming. But how will the hostage-takers act?
It’s frightening to think that the situation might be jinxed, but we can’t hide our heads in the sand and pretend we don’t notice multiple messages by the media that at least one other suicide bomber might be at large in Moscow streets.
How shall we go on? What shall we do? What shall we not do?
I believe that, first of all, while realizing the gravity of the situation, we must not give in to hysteria, or succumb to panic. But we mustn’t make rash, irresponsible, overconfident statements, either.
Thank God, Moscow city government canceled the fun events of the upcoming weekend; as late as Thursday morning, their tone was different “we won’t let terrorists interrupt the Moscow Day celebrations.”
There are frequent appeals to Israel’s experience. I’ve been to Israel many times, including recently. There really is much to learn and to be awed by. The security control in the Tel-Aviv airport alone is quite a procedure! Not only is every passenger’s (without exception!) luggage, rather than just the carry-on items, x-rayed before flight registration, but sometimes passengers are mercilessly ordered to undress nearly down to their underwear. Every person is subjected, literally, to forceful cross-questioning: who are you?; why did you come to Israel?; where have you been?; who did you meet?; where did you stay?; where did you eat?; where are your bills from the hotel, restaurant? etc.
Security guards stand by the entrance of every office, store, cafe, or movie theater, searching visitors. On the highways coming in from the Palestinian territories, cars line up before the security posts. Army sentries in full fighting gear are present at every bus stop. These are truly unprecedented security measures.
Yet there is an equally vivid impression that people are preserving their dignity, they are not giving in to fear or panic. The nation is sticking together in order to resist terrorists in an organized fashion.
At the same time, there is a furious debate in the country about whether Sharon’s government’s policies are correct (and before Sharon it was Barak’s government, and Netanyahu’s before him). But no one’s trying to accuse opponents of state treason and take appropriate measures against them, as they say.
Same in America.
America also came together after September 11. It gave Bush the mandate for the war in Iraq. But now, after all the sacrifices and failures, they aren’t hiding their head in the sand, either, when posing the question of whether Bush’s policy was right. According to pre-election polls, approximately half of America’s voters are coming to the conclusion that Bush’s policies are leading the country in the wrong direction. America’s major entrepreneurs are announcing that for this precise reason, they plan to support the current president’s opponent in the upcoming election. Imagine this neither the FBI nor the new Department of Homeland Security, nor the IRS are searching them, seizing their property, or giving them other kinds of trouble.
The recent terrorist acts in Russia cannot be justified.
But when the current crisis is over, sooner or later the question of what to do now will be posed again. I have no ready answers. But I’m certain and I’m not alone in my certainty that it’s time to meticulously analyze the political blunders the authorities committed in Chechnya. Their bet on force alone hasn’t paid off. Writing off all problems to Al-Qaeda and other evil international forces hasn’t been successful either. The “Chechenization” of the conflict hasn’t really worked. We must search for new solutions.
It’s become common to recall Alexander II bestowing royal honors on the defeated Imam Shamil. Who knows maybe it would have been enough to be kind to Soviet general Dudayev back before the first Chechen campaign to avoid the first war in Chechnya? Could that lesson be used now?