35 dead and counting...

The bombing at Domodedovo Airport in Russia has a tally of 35 dead and as many as 70 injured. No "official" claim of responsibility as been made, but North Caucus separatists seem to be the suspects of choice, if not convenience.

The open battle against these separatists has been going on now for more than 15 years, and the terror that this "war" has produced has taken the lives of nearly 1,000 noncombatants. Two airliners have been blown out of the sky, four airport bombings and a metro attack have occurred and at least one very large grade school full of children have been targeted as victims.

Spanning the entire expanse of the Putin/Medvedev era in Russian political rule, this fight has shown that the Russians still are unable to maintain order in their own "house"... but are very good at criticizing others for failing to maintain it in their countries.

More importantly, this "running battle" in the Caucus region gives the Russian military a means by which to test and better its counter-terrorist tactics and equipment. I'm not making light of a bad situation, please understand... I'm simply saying that we can't count out Russia's ability to learn from and adapt to these sorts of combat environments in the future, for good or bad. What has given the US, British and Israeli forces their "edge" in fighting terror for the last 20 years is rapidly becoming the same hone for the Russians.

Even a cursory look at the stories coming out of Moscow show that Medvedev is pretty serious about bringing some "justice" out of this mess... he's pulled out all the stops and authorized the use of "any means necessary" to bring those responsible to justice. All the tools at the Russian military's disposal are now going to be employed against those responsible, and that means that we (meaning the West) can see a bit of how good the improvements to the Russian "special forces" that have been going on for the last 10 years really are. These aren't going to be beat cops walking the Moscow streets, for civil servants punching a clock while tracking down terrorists... these will be the best rapid deployment forces available to the Russians, moving against suspected terror cells both inside and outside the Caucus regions.

These won't be hush-hush operations, either... I'm convinced that since these terrorists have made Putin/Medvedev look bad to the global public, they are going to want to show the global public that their response is fast, effective and final. We don't often think of the "Red Army" anymore... but it is still there, under a new name and wearing a new insignia. They have state-of-the-art equipment, unlimited transportation and deployment capabilities, and tactics that have been practiced and perfected (hopefully) for the last 15 years. Their training is every bit as difficult and dangerous as ours (perhaps even more so... safety standards being somewhat more loose there than here), and the rapid deployment forces of the Russian Military are no longer "conscript based"... they are 100% volunteer and pretty well paid (by Russian standards).