Terrorist Math

From FoxNews: Negotiators Try to End Standoff at Russian School.

Heavily-armed terrorists wearing masks descended on Middle School No. 1 shortly after 9 a.m. on the opening day of the new school year Wednesday. About a dozen people managed to escape by hiding in a boiler room, but hundreds of others were herded into the school gymnasium and some were placed at windows as human shields.[...]

Casualty reports in the raid varied widely, but an official in the joint-command operation for the crisis said on condition of anonymity early Thursday that 16 people were killed — 12 inside the school, two who died in hospital and two others whose bodies still lay outside the school and could not be removed because of gunfire. Thirteen others were wounded.

However, an aide to North Ossetian President Lev Dzugayev said that seven were killed. He also gave the number of hostages at 354. The children were mostly under 14.[...]

From inside the school, the militants sent out a list of demands and threatened that if police intervened, they would kill 50 children for every hostage-taker killed and 20 children for every hostage-taker injured, Kazbek Dzantiyev, head of the North Ossetia region's Interior Ministry, was quoted as telling the ITAR-Tass news agency.

An early version of this story read: "Two bodies were visible near the school. Dzgoyev said a girl was also lying near the building, presumably wounded, but officials said the area could not be approached because it was coming under fire."

Possible confirmation of this comes via Little Green Footballs which featured a report from Logic & Sanity:

Around 9 am, an old truck pulled up and about 20 heavily armed terrorists dressed in black and wear black masks and 4 women with bomb belts came out. Children started to run. Those who were standing closest to the street were able to make it out. Terrorists starting pushing others towards the building, and throwing some children through windows (inside the building)(!!!). And elderly woman was shot, and a girl who looked like an 11th grader was shot in the back. She died on the spot. Kazik's sister is still a hostage.

What the major media, including the FoxNews story above, are not presently reporting is that the "rebels" are Islamic terrorists. (LGF has a survey of news stories here.) This may change as the story develops. Already the latest CNN report mentions in passing: "[Reporter] Quinn-Judge said the widespread assumption in the community was that they are rebels with links to Islamic radicals in Chechnya." [Emphasis added]

UPDATE September 3: From CNN: Death and horror at siege school and Bloody climax to school siege.

Party Disfavors

From The New York Times: Social Conservatives Wield Influence on Platform.

Republicans approved a platform yesterday that puts the party firmly on the record against legalized abortion, gay marriage and other forms of legal recognition for same-sex couples, reflecting the political clout of social conservatives and setting up a stark contrast with the Democrats for the fall campaign. [...]

In a gesture to moderates, the Republican platform added a "unity plank," acknowledging that party members of good will might disagree. But the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay group, and Republicans for Choice faulted the plank for failing to specify the divisive social issues: abortion, stem-cell research and same-sex marriage.

I'm sympathetic to the elephant on the left.

I noticed that Arnold Schwarzenegger -- known for being a social liberal -- gave a good convention speech that included a few lines about putting aside such differences and focusing on the war on terror. Too bad the RNC platform wasn't as inclusive, or as secular for that matter.

UPDATE: Roger L. Simon reports from the convention on Pat Buchanan's reaction to Schwarzenegger. (Via Allah)

I headed for the nearest TV to watch [Schwarzenegger's speech]. Suddenly I realized someone was standing behind me. It was Pat. He had a scowl on his face. As we know, Schwarzenegger does not represent Buchanan's Republican Party. Nothing seems to make Pat happy these days. As Arnold began to lead the chant of "four more years," Buchanan spun on his heels as if repelled and stalked off, heading for the nearest microphone.

C'est l'appeasement

From The New York Times: Hostages Urge France to Repeal Its Scarf Ban.

[Hostage] Georges Malbrunot, who writes for the daily newspapers Le Figaro and Ouest-France, said, "I appeal to the French people and every Frenchman who appreciates the meaning of life to stage demonstrations demanding that the law banning the Islamic veil be revoked, because our lives are in danger and we might die any minute if this law, which I urge President Chirac to revoke, is not abrogated." [...]

The law bans conspicuous religious symbols from public elementary and high schools. It is scheduled to go into effect when schools open on Thursday. [...]

... Iraq's prime minister, Ayad Allawi, said the kidnapping proved that France's position on Iraq -- presumably its opposition to the war and the absence of a troop presence -- offered no protection from terrorism.

"Neutrality doesn't exist, as the kidnapping of the French journalists has shown," Mr. Allawi said in an interview with several European and American newspapers. "The French are deluding themselves if they think they can remain outside of this. Today the extremists are targeting them, too."

That realization, that opposition to the American-led war in Iraq has not provided immunity from Iraq-related terrorism, appears to have sunk in here [in France] as well.

"Nobody is safe," said an editorial in Le Monde on Monday. "No diplomacy can claim to be any kind of Maginot line that would protect us better than our Spanish or Italian neighbors from the death wish that has been at work since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001."

More accurately, a policy of appeasement with terrorists and dictators is a Maginot line, i.e., an ineffective line of defense. Worse still, appeasement acts as a lure to evil, inviting more and more blackmail because it rewards blackmail. That is why diplomatic compromise with Islamists -- whether in France or Najaf -- only furthers their cause and, ultimately, threatens western liberty. As the Times article notes:

[I]n an audiotape broadcast by a Dubai-based television channel in February, Ayman Zawahiri, the No. 2 figure in the terrorist network Al Qaeda, condemned France for defending the freedom of nudity and depravity and fighting chastity and decency with the scarf ban, adding that such anti-Muslim acts by the West should be dealt with by tank shells and antiaircraft missiles.

Robert Tracinski summed up the issue in today's TIA Daily:

The Europeans have long clung to the fantasy that certain specific "grievances" -- treatment of Israel and the Palestinians, US "Imperialism," and so on -- are the cause of terrorism. In reality, as French President Jacques Chirac is discovering, Islamic terrorists hate the West because of what we are -- and because we stand in the way of the global Islamic theocracy they long to impose.

UPDATE August 31: Belmont Club has more: Shadow of France. (Via InstaPundit)

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Urban Blights

From FoxNews: Anti-Bush Protesters Swarm NYC.

Roger L. Simon reports hearing a NYC police officer comment about the demonstrators: "It's like fuggin' 9/11 never happened." (Via Allah)

UPDATE: This cartoon will appear in the Tuesday, August 31st edition of The Detroit News.

HaTikvah

From The Miami Herald: Windsurfing Olympian brings a "wave" of hope to Israel

Windsurfer Gal Fridman swears he felt all of Israel -- and the 11 slain Israelis from the 1972 Munich Olympics -- pumping his board for him on a sunny Wednesday afternoon. "As if I was somewhere else, and the board was moving by itself in the final meters."

When he crossed the finish line and realized he had just won Israel's first gold medal, he wrapped himself in the Israeli flag and plunged into the water, his tears mixing with the salt water of the Saronic Gulf.

He cried again at the waterfront medal ceremony, when several hundred Israelis belted out "HaTikvah" (The Hope) as the Israeli flag was raised. Fridman, whose first name means "wave" in Hebrew, was mobbed by fans afterward, and security guards had to escort him to safety. [...]

Fridman's victory is a happy chapter in what has been a somber Olympic history for Israel, and he said he knows what he will do with his medal when he returns home. He will take it to the memorial for the murdered 11 Olympians and "show it to them, to show they are always with us, to show that we have moved on, and that we are winning."

We've created a lot of cartoons on the negative aspects of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. We wanted to create a cartoon on a positive note for a change. Our congratulations to Fridman and Israel for its first Olympic gold medal.

Fellow Travelers

From Reuters: N.Korea Hurls Abuse at Bush, Calls Him Human Trash

North Korea hurled invective at President Bush for a second day Tuesday, calling him a political idiot and human trash, and said six-party talks on Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions appeared doomed.

A day earlier, a Foreign Ministry spokesman for the isolated communist state described Bush as a tyrannical imbecile who put Adolf Hitler in the shade and said Pyongyang could see no justification to negotiate with his administration.

We'll likely hear more of the same during the Republican National Convention next week, and not necessarily from Pyongyang.

UPDATE August 30: I watched some of the C-SPAN coverage of this weekend's march against Republicans in NYC. There seemed to be less "Bush=Hitler" type expressions than at previous demonstrations, but then I only watch about 45 minutes worth. Two that I noticed: a sign reading "POLAND 1939, IRAQ 2003"; and a t-shirt reading "BUSH" with the "S" replaced by a swastika.