It depresses me to see the general chat forum being used for such topics as "Slappers bring you joy" and "Britain's Fattest City". While I appreciate the need to lighten the mood from time to time... it depresses me that not many people want to discuss more mature/serious topics.
For example, did anyone see the footage of the storming of the Russian school at lunch time? This was horrific, seeing children pouring water on each other's badly burnt backs. It would appear that the whole thing is yet another chaotic 'storm' by Russia's apparent 'special' forces. At the moment the death toll from the raid stands at around 10, but there is a whopping 150 injured children so far.
Perhaps some of the forum's less mature users could take a break for a day or two and allow more serious items to take some of the lime light. This is a 'general' forum after all, which means both serious and fun... and it's all be the latter recently.
I agree with your sentiments,i haven't been able to watch all of it but i have been kept updated by the radio and the Reuters website.About 5 hostage takers have been killed and 13 escaped,there were believed to be at least 800 people taken as hostages,the children had no food or water and were drinking their own urine.32 were allowed out then another 30 escaped.The rescue attempt seems to have been unprofessional according to a former SAS man on the radio.Russian forces went in to take away dead bodies and some of the older people tried to escape,this caused confusion and the Russians blew a hole in the schoolwall to let more escape,this confused the hostages so then it turned into a gun battle,considering only 10 died so far Putin has been very lucky,especially considering the Moscow theatre fiasco of two years ago.
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I'm actually suprised that it hasn't been posted as a topic for discussion before you did the honours Geoff.
I haven't seen the footage on TV, just the press reports. I think this is a headline that has touched more people than the 'Posh expects 3rd Child' headlines.
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My beautiful baby girl is due on December 28th 2009... One very proud partner to *binty* for everything she has been through :)
Latest 'ticker' news on BBC news online suggests that they've found 'dozens' of bodies inside the school. I have a really bad feeling that this is going to be a major catastrophe.
On a more general note. It's rather disturbing that modern terrorists seem to consider women and children a target, rather than as a group that has traditionally be released in favour of keeping men as hostages. If this is the start of a trend then it should be sending shock-waves around the world - after all, a lot of terrorists groups tend to copy each other's tactics.
I haven't seen/heard the news today, I have been working. Out of the two jobs and one quote I have done, two of those customers have mentioned the hostage situation to me, so there are concerned people 'out there' at least.
I remember watching '9/11' on the TV then going to do a job. I could not get the enormity of the situation over to the customer I was dealing with (he had not seen it) I remember as leaving saying 'you will be putting the tele on now, then? and he just sort of looked at me as if to say 'why?'
TBH I think Al Queda (spelling?) are in a league of their own in Terrorism acts (Especially considering the death count and scale of the destruction in 9/11)
The Russian Army are simply not trained well enough to deal with has happened in the School attack. I though the death count in this Russian Attack would be greater than what has been reported as I remember reading that they would kill 50 children for every one of their men killed and 20 for every one of them injured. Until reports are confirmed you can only fear the worse. I agree Geoff, from reports so far this has the potential to be a catastrophe!
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My beautiful baby girl is due on December 28th 2009... One very proud partner to *binty* for everything she has been through :)
The BBC seems to have better coverage than Reuters which is very surprising. It says on the BBC that they don't know what brought the wall down but all the articles i've seen on Reuters say that it was the Russian forces who knew about all the bodies and were bringing them out,i don't understand what babies were doing in there though.What makes it worse is that the kids who have survived are going to remember this forever and for many it will ruin their whole future.
Do you think Chechnya should be allowed to be independent?The bloodshed will end but terrorist actions will have won.Putin won't back down,i think,because when he came to power he vowed to end the struggle by force if necessary,to give in will look like a failure.However if he doesn't more Russian planes will get blown up,the Black Widows won't stop and more women and children will be captured.
Originally posted by sarah_d What makes it worse is that the kids who have survived are going to remember this forever and for many it will ruin their whole future.
One girl interviewed by the BBC as she was leaving the school said a Chechen women had blown herself up in front of them. Just hearing (and imaging) this made me feel sick. I dread to think what the result will be on the children.
We are all guilty (from time to time) of not worrying too much about things not happening on our own 'turf', but I think that no matter how far away or how removed from our day to day lives it is - terrorists shooting scores of children in cold-blood should make us all sit-up and take notice.
The Chechnyan terrorists methods are so completley horrific, I am suprised there has not been more media attention given to the situation- when the story first broke it was the 3rd story in on the bulletin I heard.
I know bombing is terrible and causes huge distress and grief, but to be held hostage with your child by people who have explosives strapped to them is just terror beyond my imagining.
Sky news was even better. They had a reporter actually in the gym whilst a fire fight was taking place..amazing footage then it was reported that they had captured one of the rebels and he needed hospital treatment but the crowd of parents got to him first and dealt out some justice of their own.
Would this ever happen in this country?? Surely we are better equipped to deal with this sort of thing. There were a lot of ex-SAS specialists commenting on the chaos and poor way the Russian special forces handled it all.
At least a hundred bodies reported on BBC radio at 3pm.
I wonder how many were killed by those 'troops' in civilian clothing who appeared to be randomly shooting at the building. The Russians really need to learn from this. I mean, we all thought they would have learnt from the theatre attack, but it would appear that they are disorganised as ever. At one point (as someone above mentioned) the parents (who were waiting outside!!) managed to get hold of one of the terrorists and pretty much beat him to death. How on earth did the police enable the parents in to the school during the siege?
People will say "Oh well, they're Russians. Poorly paid, bad infrastructure/equipment etc." but in fact Russia has some of the most highly trained elite special forces in the world. It would appear the whole sorry mess was down to a bad command structure and organisation as opposed to a lack of good soldiers/equipment.
Originally posted by Phanerothyme So I would love to comment, but I can't.
You posted but you can't comment...
If you read up, there are several major topics that come out of this crisis. For example the possibility of a new trend of targeting women and children, the quality of the Russian's tactics, the politics of whether Chechnya should be made independent... etc. etc. I think there is plenty to discuss here and while not everyone wants to... we don't all want to discuss 'slappers' either.
I've not been up long but it looks and sounds horrific. Details are sketchy at the moment about what caused the storming but after what happened at the theatre seige a couple of years ago, the Russians are very gung ho with this sort of thing.
Is this growing trend in targetting women and children perhaps a reflection of the profile of the new breed of terrorists? In one of the earlier posts mention was made of a women blowing herself up, we also have reports in the middle east of children carrying bombs and not being afraid to use them. Many of the armies in Central Africa are made up of children as young as 8 or 9.
I expect the rationale behind targetting women and children is that if the terorists themselves recruit from these ranks are they not then valid targets?
Call them what you will, revolutionaries, terrorists or freedom-fighters at the end of the day these deluded people are just pawns in a game to determine who controls the wealth of the region.
__________________ A "liberal do-gooder" is someone open to new ideas for progress, tolerant of others and who does good works. - KenH 1/12/05
Firstly I find it a little unsettling when people either say or imply that an event which harms children is somehow more serious than if only adults were involved. Surley, the age of the victims is not an issue but rather it should be condemned whoever were the hostages. This is a general point and not just specific to this story. As an adult myself I find it rather unnerving.
The second point is that this is another example of militant Islam killing incoent people. Sadly, this seems to be a growing trend and the brutality of such people appears to know no bounds. These people are fanatics and seem to think that just because they hold particular religious beliefs it entitles them to kill whoever they please. Russia is only the latest of many examples. I have no objection to militant Muslims being suicide bombers and blowing themselves up, as long as they do it either away from everyone else or amongst like minded nutters. Then they can go to their paradise (as they seem to believe) and good ridence to them. Serious enough?
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satirising political correctness since 2004
At least a hundred bodies reported on BBC radio at 3pm.
