With all of the tragedy that we've witnessed over the past days, there has been something overlooked in the media and the blogosphere. September 1st marked the first anniversary of the Beslan Massacre.
For three days children were held hostage by Islamic terrorists; children in a Christian school. The horrific events that unfolded in that time period and the stories the survivors told in the following days were so vile that they were almost unbelievable.
It was at this point that I completely gave up on the MSM. These terrorists were often referred to as insurgents and on one occassion I heard a news anchor actually call them "Freedom Fighters". Freedom fighters that stab babies and execute young children at gun point. The fear the children must have been feeling is far too much for any sane person to overlook. To equate these terrorists to freedom fighters is the ultimate in political bias.
Russia is obviously still dealing with the events of September 1, 2004. Families are forever damaged and the Russian government has yet to answer to the citizens of Beslan. Yet the stories of the terrorists were exalted in many news broadcasts. That they were getting even with the Russian government for an execution of one of their own. That they were not being heard by officials or citizens in the area. So those situations gave them the right to murder innocent children? Why must we "understand" the motives of these terrorists and ignore the victims? Why must the media continuely exalt Islamic terrorists?
When you're spending time in prayer for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, please remember the families of Beslan. These harmless, innocent victims must not be forgotten.
Linked to Beth to hopefully get the word out about remembering this story.
I've said it before, I'll say it again: there's only 2 reasons to "understand" terrorists:
1. Before they attack, so you can stop them;
2. After they've attacked, so you can hunt them down and kill them.
Posted by: Jeff H at September 4, 2005 05:18 PMThanks for the excellent point, Stacy; I think I'll add this to what I'm working on, too.
Posted by: Nettie at September 4, 2005 07:32 PMOK, so I changed my mind. But it was still good.
Posted by: Nettie at September 4, 2005 09:16 PMI can only say that this is a fight between Good and evil. The media often gets on the wrong side. They think they are some type of Switzerland. But when it comes to this fight, "He who is not with me is against me. He who does not gather with me, scatters." The media needs to wake up and see that they have chosen already chosen sides. And then switch sides before they lose more than their objectivity.
Posted by: bigwhitehat at September 5, 2005 01:31 PMI wrote about Beslan a year ago. I keep a link posted on my main page, not because what I wrote was good, but because what happened isn't ready to be buried in the archives. I'm still haunted by what those children went through.
Mcubed-I'm glad you do, that thing killed my soul.
Posted by: Stacy at September 7, 2005 11:07 PM