[lbo-talk] Chechen hostages taken by Russian SF

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

>Kim Murphy
> Times Staff Writer sez:
> 
> "They were following the standard practice developed almost a century
> ago by the Bolsheviks and carried on by Stalin, who believed that
> every single act of terror should be responded to by an even bigger,
> more horrendous, more terrifying terrorist act," Zakayev said.
> "According to this practice, it is necessary to shock terrorists, and
> let them know that under no condition will you agree to negotiate
> with them."

Let me recall President William Jefferson Clinton saying, in connection
with the US humanitarian intervention is Somalia:

'We're not inflicting pain on these fuckers,' Clinton said, softly at
first. 'When people kill us, they should be killed in greater numbers.'
Then, with his face reddening, his voice rising, and his fist pounding
his thigh, he leaned into Tony [Lake, then his national security
adviser], as if it was his fault. 'I believe in killing people who try
to hurt you. And I can't believe we're being pushed around by these
two-bit pricks.'"

Incidentally, both Mr. Stalin and Mr. Clinton and, I may add, Mr.
Sharon, seem to be up to something.  Collective punishment seems to be a
better deterrent than individual punishment in societies with
collectivist mindsets.  

This is not meant to condone such practices, albeit I am not castigating
them either.  This would be cheap moralizing, so characteristic of the
US parochial mentality.  This is to say that the conceptual apparatus of
US jurisprudence is deeply rooted in individualistic view of human
nature and condition, and thus suffers from all the shortcomings and
fallacies of such a view.  

Wojtek