Moscow Gas Debacle Leaves Putin Unscathed
What Paul Quinn-Judge, the TIME’s Moscow bureau chief makes perfect sense. You can’t compare the Chechens rebels to the Al-Queda. It certainly is terrorism however; the Chechens have a specific motive, while the Al-Queda do not. The Chechens even though the demands were outrageous were specific, not just something broad like “Destroy Russia”. They were motivated by nationalism not by broad and simple hate of Russians.
Similarly I believe too many people made the mistake of comparing the World Trade Center attacks with Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor was not an attack motivated by religion, but was rather an attack based on nationalism, and was an act of war not of terror. Civilians (at least not many) were not killed in it and it was during a war.