For many years, I have used Russia and Chechnya as a metaphor for Israel-Palestine. Whenever my right wing acquaintences would argue that Israel isn’t using enough force against the Palestinians, I would say: “Look at Chechnya. The Russians have used no-hold-barred force there, and it hasn’t bought them quiet. The Russians have bombed the country to oblivion and the violence continues.” For a few years, at least, that seemed not to be true. With the rise of Putin the Chechnyan rebels seemed to have been crushed under the Russian boot. But that was only an illusion. Sadly, it all played out in prime time this past week. The violence of Russian occupation just made the Chechnyan rebels more desperate, not more compliant. And as Yevgenia Albats points out, there is another lesson to be learned here, which is crucial for Americans to take to heart: giving up democratic liberties is not the way to win the war on terrorism.
In Albats words:
“So despite the fact that Moscow streets are now filled with policemen checking papers of those who look non-Slavic and therefore suspicious, despite the increased activity of the Russian secret services in exercising surveillance over politicians, despite all of the security precautions, several dozen heavily armed terrorists managed to stage their attack just a few miles from the Kremlin. Democracy cannot protect against all manifestations of terrorism, but an authoritarian regime clearly can do no better. Mr. Putin’s Kremlin seeks to trade freedoms and liberties for the promise of security…The tragic result is neither liberties, nor security.”
Of course, the question becomes what can democracies do? Well for one thing, instead of spending money on tactical nuclear warheads or fighting wars against petty third world dictators, as the Bush administration wants to do, defense money should be spent on defending common people with simple, effective means. Frank Rich of the New York Times points out that the really important defensive measures to fight terrorism aren’t being taken.