Russian special forces early today captured control of the Moscow theater where Chechen rebels had been holding 700 hostages, after a dramatic pre-dawn battle inside the building that resulted in most of the guerrillas being killed and large numbers of hostages either dead or wounded.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2002Oct25.html

I have nothing but admiration for the Russians in how they handled
this incident. The Chechens do not deserve to have an independent
state, and the USA should apologize to Russia for all the irresponsible
criticism we have thrown at them over the Chechen war.

A lot of Chechens were in Afganistan with the Taliban forces.
Russia is fighting our fight on another front, defending civilization
from a new evil, more deadly than the Nazi regime of world war two.

There has been a fundamental realignment of alliances
in world politics, and we had better learn who our friends are
and which ones are laying in wait to ambush us.