Yahoo! News - Russia prepared for pre-emptive strikes on 'terror bases' worldwide

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia is prepared to make pre-emptive strikes on "terrorist bases" anywhere in the world, the Interfax news agency cited the country's chief of staff as saying.

Can't say that I really blame them, In it's way, the school seige was worse than our 9/11. Not in causualty count, but for the fact that so many of the victims were children and because the drama played out over such a longer period of time.

In Russia, the terrorists were well prepared for a long seige and took their time to terrorize those inside and outside the school. They were methodical and tore at the psyche of every parent worldwide with the thought that, "it could happen here...". 9/11, although not to minimize it for one minute, was more akin to a quick stab at the heart, not a prolonged bloodletting.

"With regard to preventive strikes on terrorist bases, we will take any action to eliminate terrorist bases in any region of the world.

I wonder how comfortable former Soviet expert Conoleeza Rice is about this development? Can you imagine how Reaganites would react to Russia engaging in pre-emptive strikes and preventative wars?

Not well to be sure. This is hauntingly similar to the Brezhnev Doctrine which gave us the Czechoslovakian and Afghanistan invasions. However, I can think of little that I would consider an overreaction to the tragic results of the school seige.

But this does not mean we will carry out nuclear strikes," General Yuri Baluyevsky said Wednesday.

OK, that probably would be going too far. How disturbed are you that Russia's Military Chief of Staff felt he had to reassure anybody that they weren't going nuclear, yet?

Of course in the topsy-turvy world created by Gworge W. Bush and his fanatical neo-conservative minions, nothing should surprise you anymore; not in a world where paleoconservative Pat Buchanan who rails against imperial America, is accused of finding common cause with the nation's most endearing libretarian/socialist/anarchist, Noam Chomsky.

There's something very wrong in the world when the far left and far right join hands with a moderate position compared to the administration, and the Pentagon and the Kremlin are at odds with Foggy Bottom.

Maybe it's too late. Maybe America has Jumped the Shark. I do long for the time where things made sense, where I could lightly dismiss as radical the polemics of Buchanan and Chompsky; where an America and the world were united by tragedy, were in no danger of being furhter divided by a leader professing to be a "uniter, not a divider." I long for the days when I only disagreed with some of our official policies, not every single stinking decision our president makes.

And make no mistake, my vision is not clouded by constant Bush-bashing, except the times where they insist on pulling the wool over my eyes.