Originally posted here by Tedob1
this was really a no win situation. use gas to minimze casualities, their wrong, do nothing and let the hostages be executed, it's why didn't they act. pull their troops out of Chechnya and everyone with what they think is a cause, will start taking hostages.

troops with no ties to anyone inside were told to rush a building rigged to blow. i think they did the right thing.
You are right when saying not to compromise when talking about terrorism. But was there really no other gas they could have used? If they knew what possible problems / deaths could occur with the gaz why did they not take precautions like antidotes, more medics?

On the otherhand if you see the ammount of explosives and the number of terrorists, you can imagine that they needed to use a very effective gaz. If the total number of killings was lower, i would say "well done!", but now...

The rumour goes this was a KGB operation (set up)