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SIMMONS ON THE RED CROSS

Geitner Simmons at Regions of Mind goes into much greater depth regarding the attempt of the Red Cross to make the case that the United States is liable for not adhering to the unsigned, unratified Protocol I. of the 4th Geneva Convention. Protocol I. was a project of European leftists sympathetic to Third World revolutionaries and Soviet bloc diplomats back in the 1970’s to create legal double-standards for leftist guerillas in their struggles against Western and pro-Western governments. Even the Carter administration found this proposed, special-pleading rule-set to be laughable but NGO’s are using Protocol I. as a battering ram to try and make future American interventions impossible or if possible, unsuccessful and legally suspect.

THE DISCONTENTED EURABIANS OF BRUSSELLS HAVE MADE THE RUSSIANS THE NEW ISRAELIS

The EU’s Romano Prodi does his best to signal to al Qaida and radical Jihadis that their slaughtering children in cold blood in Russia won’t be considered a problem by the EU any more than the targeting of children in Israel.

“05 September 2004

The head of the European Commission Romano Prodi said on Sunday that it was legitimate to make a “friendly” request to Russia for an explanation of the bloody end to the school hostage crisis.

“It is not possible to react straight away, you have to look carefully at exactly what happened, and there are still many grey areas,” Prodi said on the margins of a meeting in northern Italy.

“Following that process a request for an explanation is legitimate, as is normal between friendly countries,” he added.

Prodi’s comments follow a statement Friday by Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, in which he said: “All countries in the world need to work together to prevent tragedies like this. But we also would like to know from the Russian authorities how this tragedy could have happened.”

Moscow’s reaction was immediate and fierce, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday calling the comments “insolent.”

The Russian foreign ministry issued their own statement saying: “The inappropriate comments of the Dutch minister are, to say the least, odious, and for the large part deeply offensive.” Russia was “bewildered and outraged” by the comments, it added.

Bot claimed afterward he had been misunderstood and promised to clear the matter up with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

Prodi said the hostage drama was a tragedy and that there were still details the European Union had no knowledge of.

“When we do know about them, it will be natural to request explanations from Russia, in a friendly manner,” he said. “

Some ” friends”. Presumably, Mr. Prodi’s friendly manner will be ready at hand if the blood of American school children next runs in the streets of Chicago or New York.

Many Europeans are our friends. The Italians have already formally expressed their disgust with Prodi and Bot ( who are currently backpedaling) but we need to be extremely clear:

There are EU officials in power today who see their interests in egging on Islamist terrorists to carry out their murderous activities in the lands of Europe’s friends, allies and neighbors, so long as they refrain from another Madrid 3/11.

(Hat Tip to Dr. Judith Klinghoffer at Deja Vu)

MUSLIM WORLD RESPONDS TO CHECHNYA TERROR

The horror at a Russian elementary school brought forth a divided reaction from the mostly state-run presss in the Arab-Islamic world. The good news is few papers or public figures gave an outright endorsement of the terrorists ( with the notable exception of a radical Islamist cleric in Britain notorious for his commemorative celebrations of 9/11). The bad news is the reaction contained few outright condemnations either – there were some to give credit where it was due – but the majority reaction appears to have been morally evasive, hairsplitting, qualifications on what constitutes ” jihad” and the now familiar lunatic denial ” The Israelis did it “.

UPDATE: Daniel Pipes found a good and heartening example of Muslim self-examination in terms of terrorism.

CSIS ON CHECHNYA AND RUSSIA

The Center for Strategic and International Studies has essentially called for international intervention in Chechnya, saying that it has “ the markings of a failed state, except that it is part of the Russian federation” and that it represents a serious danger to American national security.

I can’t really disagree with CSIS as far as their statement goes but they have missed the more obvious danger which is Russia itself sliding into the status of a failed state. Russian territorial integrity is perceived to be quite fragile and the public has never recovered from the demoralization of the fall of the USSR and Yeltsin’s failed economic policies. Vladmir Putin, for all his flaws, did give Russians the reassuring sense of a strong man at the helm – this tied in to a cultural tradition of respect for the “Vozhd” or supreme leader. Putin’s speech on the hostage crisis, I am guessing, has undermined that psychological security blanket.

LINK:

Winds of Change has an extensive briefing on the current status of Chechnya and it’s recent history.

NEW TO THE BLOGROLL

Clayton Cramer. Welcome !