This is not how to win for your cause

Well the stand off in Russia is over. Over 100 KIDS appear to have been killed when the Russian army stormed the school. Apparently some kids tried to escape, the terrorists started to shoot at the kids and the soldiers then had to attack to protect the rest of the kids. It sounds like a very messy rescue mission that the government wasn't ready for nor wanted to have happen (at least at this time). But then again, what would the government in any other country do (including here in the US), if bad guys started to shoot kids who tried to escape from their captors.

I can't say the Chechnya rebels did their cause any good by their attack on the school. Deliberately targeting kids might bring pressure on the government to cave to the terrorists demands (one mother I heard heard on the news yesterday said "what ever their (the terrorists) demands are, the government must meet, no price is too high"), but once the killing of kids starts all bets are off. Now it will be debated that the troops should not have stormed the school, but then again, the terrorists should not have been shooting at kids who did manage to escape. They should have tried to make sure there would be no additional escapes. Now there will be weeping in Russia and then the demands for revenge. And it won't just be for revenge against the terrorists. Anyone connected to them by blood, marriage or any other way will now be targeted. The Russian government will now have free reign to do what they want in Chechnya and there won't be any protest from the citizens of Russia. The terrorists have targeted kids, the reprisals will most likely be without mercy.