Russia...

Why does this nation stick out so much in my mind as a resource the Bush Administration is ignoring at every opportunity? Because it IS a resource we are ignoring.

Query: What nation, outside of Israel and Iraq, has had a greater number of terrorist attacks within its borders than Russia over the last 15 years?

My answer? None.

In the last 15 years, Russia has seen a greater rise in Islamic terrorist attacks than any other nation outside of the Middle East region. Counting yesterdays bus bombing, she has seen 7 attacks that have resulted in the deaths of more than 1200 innocent lives and the reported injuries of nearly 2900. Obviously, our own losses during the 9-11 attacks are greater, and these numbers probably seem laughable to those living in Iraq or Israel... but they represent a growing problem in Russia that should be looked at very carefully by the US government.

Russia has as much as declared openly that it is "at war" with Muslim extremists within its borders... something the US has catagoricly denied or refused to say, so as not to seem intolerant or biased in its focus. Russia shares this focus (declared or otherwise) with the US... as much as I may love to point out that the US's second most deadly terrorist attack was from domestic, non-Muslim radicals, our greatest danger lies in extremist Islamic groups, not in unhappy revolutionary "militias" based in the mountains of Idaho or the north woods of Michigan. Even our own "neo-Nazi" groups and racially motivated "Klan" radicals hate the terrorists as much as they hate "ethnic" Americans... perhaps even more.

Anyone that justifies the actions of the Chechnyan "insurgents" as a fight for independence from Russian or Soviet domination needs to do some research. The Chechnyan rebels are fighting to implement the same kind of Islamic regime as we have encountered in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and the ultra-conservative extremist regime in Iran... exclusively ruled by ultra-conservative Muslim clerics with an iron fist (or worse) for any non-comformist. They are no different from al Queda or the PLO in their tactics and means of attack... in other words, they kill as many as they can at every opportunity. They employ the same "suicide" mentality that the PLO and Hamas have become famous for, and with stunning results.

The largest difference between Russia and the US is in how successfully they have combated terrorism. I'm not convinced that the US has maintained a "spotless" record since 9-11... but the Russians have had simply the biggest disasters imaginable when it comes to combating terror. If the US (and Carter) is going to be held accountable for the deaths of 8 American servicemen in the attempted rescue of the Iranian hostages in 1979... then what kind of answers will the Russians have to give up for the rescue attempts of the Beslan school hostages and the Moscow theater hostage crisis? With only those two examples, the Russians have seen the deaths of more than 500 hostages... that is a hostage casaulty average of just over 25% for just those two attacks. Include the wounded and it goes to 81%. The use of internationally banned chemical agents from a "nonexistant" military arsenal didn't help them either, of course... but they tried.

The only Russian leader that hasn't begged the US to cooperate more openly with Russian anti-terror agencies is Putin... and I don't know what his issue is. However, the dozens of others that have begged have had their pleas fall on Bush's deaf ears. How long is this going to go on? How long are we going to continue to alienate the only possible candidate for a global "partnership" against organized international terror? Ranking the US and UK highest in their capacity to project force globally... who would argue that Russia is third? If not Russia, then who?