Terror in Beslan
The news media are doing a terrible job of putting the terrorist attack in Beslan into context. I?m not primarily concerned with, although I think they have failed to convey, the scale of what happened?with about 350 people confirmed dead, about 200 missing and another 450 currently in the hospital, this will probably turn out to be the second-worst terrorist attack in history. Of course, the Russian government admits to having lied about the scale of the crisis, which I suspect played a major role in how it has been covered in the States. It unfolded over several days, and the information that was released was either wrong or piecemeal, putting journalists in the position of trying to convey to the public, ?You know that thing we?ve been covering for a while that you?re starting to ignore? Well, it?s a really big deal!? It?s overseas, nobody here is unsafe?so keeping anyone?s attention is a feat of great proportions to begin with, and reporting that something that has already been reported is really more significant than previously reported is about as easy a task as reading this sentence.
More importantly, I haven?t seen any real attempt to place this attack in the context of the larger pattern of attacks, nor have I seen any real explanation of the terrorists? motives, other than that they are ?Chechen separatists,? nor have I seen anyone draw the obvious lines between the Russian situation and our ?War on Terror.?
Some reports have managed to note the fact that only about a week prior to the attack in Beslan, Chechen terrorists simultaneously destroyed two Russian passenger planes, killing all aboard. I haven?t seen any, but perhaps one or two has managed to draw a parallel to the hostages held in the Moscow theatre two years ago. For the most part, though, the larger pattern of attacks has been ignored.
Chechnya, internationally recognized as a province of Russia, has been the focus of battles for independence since an independence movement formed after the fall of the Soviet Union. About 150,000 people died in the two Chechen wars, 1994-1996 and 1999-2002. Suffice to say, the Chechen populace does not care much for Russian rule. The majority is Sunni Muslim, and the entire population was deported to Kazakhstan during the Second World War.
Of course, there?s an important question to be answered: ?If Chechnya is an ethnically distinct nation that desires independence, why is Russia fighting to keep it?? As you know, I believe in the principle of national self-determination. Given that as of now, only about 5% of the population of Chechnya is Russian, Russia really has no legitimate reason to fight this battle, and as they should have learned from their experience in Afghanistan, it really isn?t worth the cost.
I should say, it wouldn?t be worth the cost, were it not for the fact that Chechnya has somewhat-significant oil reserves in its south and a major pipeline running through it.
Thus the parallels to the American situation: a nation is suffering from terrorist threats due to its projection of force upon a Muslim area due to its interest in that area?s oil supplies. Of course, this has been the situation for both America and Russia throughout the Cold War and beyond. Middle-Eastern countries, particularly Islamic ones, have been used as pawns of the Western and Soviet powers for a century in various power struggles, resulting in the ?third way? ideology of Islamism, the radical perversion of Islam fathered by Sayyid Qutb. Islamism hates Russia and the U.S. equally; Osama bin Laden is believed to be a major financier for some Chechen guerillas, and Al Qaeda forces are believed to have fought alongside the Chechen regulars.
Russia now faces the same problem as America: to effectively fight terror, they need to both destroy existing terrorist networks and prevent new ones from forming. Destruction has proved to be the relatively easy part, but the supposed weakness shown by actions such as pulling out of Chechnya (a move that they should have probably done in the first place?prior to Sept. 11, the U.S. had been suggesting to Russia that it do exactly that, but we dropped the pressure, seeking allies in the “War on Terror”) has thus far prevented either America or Russia from cutting off the fountain of hatred from which terrorism has flowed.
We seem to have forgotten that terrorism is defined by actions. Terrorists are nothing more than people who commit (or intend to commit) acts of terrorism. To win this ?War on Terror,? we?re going to have to change our ways, so that ideologies like Qutb?s no longer hold sway. This isn?t backing down before the demands of terrorists as some would criticize, it?s correcting real injustices so that young people no longer find terrorism to be an attractive option.
Oh! Update! (1:09am EDT)
Slate has bothered to explain why the Chechens hate the Russians.