Looks like Big Tim isn't the only one who chooses to use this thread only as an opportunity to gratuitously beat up Americans. None of you who are using this thread that way really could give a shit about the dead kids in Russia.

Here's what I have to say about what happened in Russia at this point in time. I have very mixed emotions about this situation. I am horrified about what has happened to so many innocent children and, being a parent myself, I am heartbroken for the parents of those children. And I am very saddened for all of the adults killed and for the whole community and the gaping wound that they will have to live with, probably for the rest of their lives.

But I am also disturbed because I know that my own government has probably contrbuted to creating the climate that made this situation not only possible, but highly likely (no negotiations... you're either fer us or agin' us). And I am horrified by the way the government of Russia has been dealing with the situation in Chechnya. And I am horrified by the conditions that the Chechens have to live under on a daily basis. I am very afraid for the people in Chechnya who did not have any part in this horrible massacre of innocents in Russia. I am afraid for the people in Russia who will surely be the targets of future terrorist attacks.

I am horrified and afraid because I know my own country is going to continue to contribute to the climate of the powerful using preemption in order to get away with whatever the hell they want (usually in service to power and money) at the expense of millions of innocent people like those children in Russia, and the children of Chechnya. And the children of Iraq. And the children of Israel and the Palestinian Occupied Territories. And the children of Afghanistan. And so on. And I am horrified because I don't think it matters who gets elected president here in the US this time around. I think either way, my government is going to continue to contribute to this madness untill a lot more innocent people get killed. And the rest of the world (at least those parts of the world that are governed by the power hungry and the greedy) will take its cue from my government.

So go suck a lemon all of you sanctimonious, self-satisfied, insular people like Big Tim and the rest of you who are participating in his little feeding frenzy in this thread.