Friday, June 30, 2006
Putin Orders Iraqi Hostage Killers Destroyed. Wait for the Outrage
Although Russia's leader, Vladimir Putin, may have a lot of shortcomings -- bad human rights record, economic difficulties, a last name I could pronounce in English either Pootin or Pyutin -- but as an American and an Israeli, I kind of have to respect his strong, deterrent, almost Wild West Cowboy-ish response to the murder of four Russians in Iraq:
Hold on. Where in the world is the Russian Left? How is it possible to read through an entire story in which innocent Islamic insurgents are threatened with extra-legal bodily violence, and there is not a peep of protest reported from moonbats, academics, diplomats or movie stars. It's as if, well, as if what Putin is doing was actually OKAY. This is worrisome. What will become of Russian society without knee jerk leftist sentiments to keep it from acting in its own interests?
Perhaps the American Left could be sent to Siberia, to open a training camp that will develop a new generation of Russian Leftist gadflies who will put a stop to such outrages (by outrage, I mean what Putin plans, not the killing of Russian diplomats). We would know the Russian Left has finally arrived if stories like this included some of the moral context we have become acccustomed to:
If you really, really liked this -- or even really, really hated it -- there's lots more:
We aren't yet at the point of hearing about insurgents' bodies turning up with their heads lying next to them in a sack, tattoed with some Russian profanity, but it looks like that is coming. I, naive as I am, actually believe such a thing might gently encourage other insurgents within Iraq to restrict any future freedom-fighting to the beheading of less volatile targets, like Iraqis and Brits and Americans, not Russians. While Putin's stand is a bit on the brutal side compared to the usual sternly worded letter calling for restraint and respect for human rights, I'll leave the hand-wringing and finger-wagging about this to the Russian Left.
President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered Russia's special services to hunt down and "destroy" the killers of four Russian diplomats in Iraq, the Kremlin said.
Nikolai Patrushev, the head of the Federal Security Service -- the main successor to the Soviet KGB -- later said that everything would be done to ensure that the killers "do not escape from responsibility," the Interfax news agency reported.
"The president has ordered the special forces to take all necessary measures to find and destroy the criminals who killed Russian diplomats in Iraq," the Kremlin press service said in a brief statement.
Hold on. Where in the world is the Russian Left? How is it possible to read through an entire story in which innocent Islamic insurgents are threatened with extra-legal bodily violence, and there is not a peep of protest reported from moonbats, academics, diplomats or movie stars. It's as if, well, as if what Putin is doing was actually OKAY. This is worrisome. What will become of Russian society without knee jerk leftist sentiments to keep it from acting in its own interests?
Perhaps the American Left could be sent to Siberia, to open a training camp that will develop a new generation of Russian Leftist gadflies who will put a stop to such outrages (by outrage, I mean what Putin plans, not the killing of Russian diplomats). We would know the Russian Left has finally arrived if stories like this included some of the moral context we have become acccustomed to:
- Sheehanova's promises hunger strike until Putin yanks all Russian soldiers back to Russia so they can live with their mothers.
- One of the victim's third cousins, twice removed, states in the press that he doesn't want to see his relatives' killers killed, instead blaming Putin himself for not having ordered the assassination of that crackpot Bush years ago.
- Russian trial lawyers lobby expresses concern that the militants receive a fair trial with a jury of their peers -- preferably in Tikrit, the foothills of Afghanistan, or most university campuses -- so that their potential torture, execution and public dismemberment not be considered extra-judicial activity.
- The Moscow Times publishes a list of names, addresses, photos and known food allergies of all Russian Special Forces operating in and near Iraq, in the hopes that it will help the public decide whether Putin has assigned the right balance of troops to the mission.
- The Council on Russian Islamic Relations (CRIR) condemns the proposed special forces mission on the grounds of insufficient diversity on the hit squad but promising to sign off on the mission if a muslim is included, preferably as the radio operator.
- Redacted Russian Intelligence documents are leaked, leading many to infer that it's all a lie, a big lie -- that there are no murdering insurgents in Iraq as Putin promised when he sent the forces in -- and it's just a cover up for Putin to try to control oil pipelines with a few special forces, which is all it really takes after all.
- Leftist Russian web site Daily Kossack demands Putin not deploy forces against innocent Iraqi insurgents, dismissing the murdered Russians as having butted in on George Bush's killing fields. Writes the Kossack regarding the murdered, "Screw them," only in much more colorful and explicit Russian.
