1 One of the reasons I stayed up all those hours and guest blogged about Beslan School in Russia blaming the Checken TERRORISTS along with their counterparts, Al Qaida Arab TERRORISTS is because of the horrible terror and death they caused in Beslan. The Checks are also Muslims and are part of the Al Qaida group and they are indeed TERRORISTS, not separatists, not rebels, not anything else except plain old TERRORISTS. They way they kill Russian soldiers is no different than the beheadings the terrorists in Iraq do it. They are one and the same. Same religion, same beliefs, same terrorsits. They would like to blame Russia for all their problems but their problems are ones of their own making and the terrorism is no different. They are the problem, not the Russians. Funny how the terrorists would like to blame anyone but themselves. The Arabs in Darfur are also Muslims - maybe darker skin, too, but they are wiping out blacks. I don't care what country they are from but they are destroying every country they are in, destroying the lives of those in that country, making life unbearable for all; deaths are considered "collateral damage." What we and all countries throughout the world should stick together should stand side by side doing everything in our power to stop them from any more killing anywhere. That's what the war on terrorism is all about. ~C

2 I had a Muscovite roommate in 1995 who had pretty much unalloyed contempt for the Chechens, assuming (as you say) that there were behind most of the organized crime in the Moscow area. He was 16 years old, so it's not like he had a lot of time invested in building prejudices. I think he just soaked it up like a sponge.