The difference between this and September 11th and October 12th is that these were terrorists making demands. "Do this or we'll do that."

That's horrible and it's not justifiable, but it's "rational". The hijackers of September 11th and the bombers of October 11th in Bali weren't making demands. That's what is different about them, and that's an important difference to keep in mind.

And the other thing about the war in Chechnya is that it is a vicious and unjust war by Russia which should never have started, and the sooner it stops the better for everyone.

Historical analogies should never be taken too far - but imagine a scenario in which a bunch of Jews had done something like this in a Berlin theatre and had demanded a halt to the Holocaust? Would people be quite so certain that giving in to their demands would have been the wrong thing to do?