The Bush regime would like to bring Russia back in line to support its Iraq resolution in the UN. Israel is, as Noam Chomsky puts it, “an offshore US military base”. I’d imagine the US would now not only be silent if Russia wanted to level Chechnya, but they’re probably now eager to lend a helping hand with the bloody business.
Israel’s outstretched hand: Israel: Chechen Terrorists Linked To Al Qaeda:
How convenient.
Chechen rebels holding hundreds of hostages in a Moscow theater, including Americans and other foreigners, may have links to the al-Qaeda terrorist network of Osama bin Laden, an Israeli expert said here on Thursday, as Israel offered its assistance to Russia. …
There is a feeling that the two countries are opposing the same kind of Islamic terrorism,” Hoffman said in a telephone interview. “This will strengthen those ties.”
WASHINGTON – President Bush , in a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, offered U.S. assistance in the Moscow hostage crisis and said “this is a time of solidarity between the United States and Russia.”
I doubt Bush can even spell SOLIDARITY.
Bush placed the call “to express America’s support for Russia in this hostage takeover. He said the United States was prepared to help Russia with whatever Moscow needed, and this for the two nations to work closely together, the spokesman said.
Asked if the situation was terrorism-related, Fliescher replied, “It’s clearly terrorists.”