03 July 2010

Beslan, The Chechens, and the legacy of Sacralist Russia


updated July 2012

I posted this on another website. A book about the Beslan Tragedy was being promoted but just from the review you could sense the real bias of the book. It was going to focus on the evil of the Chechen Fighters and the innocence of the Russians and then apply the 'threat' to the United States. Christians seem to most susceptible to this type of propaganda. They think in terms of we(America) are the good guys and they(whoever resists the United States) is the evil enemy. This is Constantinianism not Christianity.....


I've read extensively on the Kavkaz (Caucasus) region...Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, North and South Ossetia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, etc.... It gets quite complicated, and I get the distinct impression this book is going to do what all politically conservative publications seem to do....reduce the whole thing to juvenile simplicity.

Terror at Beslan by John Giduck is the book they recommended. Maybe I'll get a hold of it and write a review on Amazon. Although from what I've read of the reviews...it looks like a bit of a joke. The same old propaganda tools are being trotted out...liberal media etc.... I find it somewhat amusing that government officials are touting the book.

When will the church awaken?

What happened at Beslan was a horrible tragedy, but Russia bears much of the blame. The North Caucasus Region has never had a tradition of Wahhabi or Salafi forms of Islam. After the 19th century conquest, the genocidal deportations under Stalin, and then the two Chechen Wars of the 90's...these people have been driven beyond the point of endurance. It is no surprise that radicalism has taken root. The same thing could happen here, not because we're good and they're bad. People are driven to these when extremes when they have been decimated, have no hope and not even any means to fight back against the larger enemy. They are forced to turn to guerilla tactics, but when the battle is fought on their land, it's just a painful process of attrition. When they're near the point of breaking those who are left will turn to the most desperate of guerilla tactics...what the oppressor will call, terrorism.

This is what happened at Beslan and it's also what happened on 11 September 2001. Had the Vietnamese a way to strike in the United States, they probably would have.

It doesn't excuse the radicalism and murder, but what do you expect from unbelievers? If more than 10% of your population has been eradicated, fallen people are not going to take it. To put those numbers in perspective, 10% of the American population would represent just over 30 million people. The United States in its position of isolated power has never had to deal with these types of scenarios and for American diplomats and experts to lecture either the Russians or Chechens on right behaviour and international responsibility is not only laughable to both parties but frankly obscene. It's like a spoiled child lecturing a combat veteran on how to be tough and deal with adversity.

The Chechens have no means to fight the mighty Russian state and its military. So yes, they resort to publicity and drastic tactics. It's all wicked. The Russians have installed violent lecherous thugs (the Kadyrov dynasty) to rule over the country. The people can't take it anymore. They've largely capitulated, but some elements have become radicalized. Abandoning the Sufi heritage of the North Caucasus, they have embraced radical jihad and Salafism.

It's the same here. In the nineties numerous authors tried to warn that America would be suffering Blowback as a result of its 20th century post-War foreign policies. America has manipulated, corrupted, schemed, and murdered all over the world. Something like a 9/11 was inevitable.....and Bush's Wars will only do more harm in the long run.

Yes, these people are evil...but so is the Russian government. The 9/11 attackers were evil, but so is the American government. Economic and Cultural Imperialsm are also realities that few here think about. The targeting of the World Trade Center said a lot.

If our society reached a point where Christians were disenfranchised, had become second class citizens and even persecuted. I have no doubts whatsoever that radical elements within the larger American 'church' would take to the bush with their guns. We're almost there even now.

Empires do what they do...and lost people fight back. But I am baffled that so many Christians think there's any difference between American F-16 or drone pilots pushing a button from 10,000 feet and the guy who straps an explosives vest on. They're both murderers. The only difference is, one wears the uniform. The uniform means his violent gang has the monopoly of violence and is thus reckoned legitimate in the eyes of the population his gang controls. When the conquer another country, who has the legitimacy? It's a thorny question. Many people stop fighting not because they consciously acknowledge the new legitimate authority. They stop because they believe if they don't, they will be killed. Others fight on and as they grow desperate, so do their tactics.

The legitimacy question is one Sacralists wrestle with because they want to know 'who' can claim the right law and judgment. They want to know who can legitimately pick up a gun.

These issues are outside the sphere of the Christian church. We shouldn't have any desire to enter into these conflicts or support any of these violent gangs whether they be terrorist cells or imperial legions.

The threat to the Church of Jesus Christ isn't the late Chechen guerilla Shamil Basayev, Bin Laden, Ahmadinejad, or Nancy Pelosi.

It's people like Pat Robertson, Joyce Meyer, Joel Osteen, Chuck Colson....they're destroying souls and syncretizing Americanism with Christianity.....

Singing America the Beautiful tomorrow morning (4 July 2010) during the gathering of the church is spiritually more destructive than anything Al Qaeda can do.