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40 dead in Moscow subway boom
EFL-And The Link is to The BBC, Better Graphics and Decent Map of Moscow Subway. Initial Reports indicate a Female suicide bomber.About 40 people have died and more than 100 were injured in a suspected suicide attack on a packed Moscow subway train. The blast happened at the height of rush hour in the second carriage of the train as it entered a tunnel from -station. As a linking Station, most people who have been to Moscow will be familiar with Paveletskaya. Smoke filled the tunnel, Interfax reported, and hundreds of passengers have been evacuated. If the explosion is confirmed as a bomb attack, suspicion is likely to fall on separatist militants from Chechnya. Russian police told French news agency AFP that the blast was "probably" caused by a suicide bomber. As previously noted, probably female, as now being reported. Women are seeming to become the Bomb Vehicle of Choice...Sigh. They simply attract less attention. Up to 350 were reported injured in the incident, many suffering from broken bones, smoke inhalation and burns, Russian radio reported. BBC correspondent Sarah Rainsford in Moscow says there were scenes of panic and confusion as people fled the powerful explosion. Scores of dazed commuters, many with faces bloodied by injuries and blackened with smoke, poured into the city streets to escape the flames. The train had left the Paveletskaya station, on the metro systemâs green line, and was travelling south from the city centre to the Avtozavodskaya station through a tunnel when the blast occurred. Wounded passengers were guided to safety through the tunnel by emergency services, while fire officials attempted to put out a large fire caused by the explosion. More than 50 ambulances arrived at the scene and police sealed off the surrounding streets. The train was severely damaged in the blast, which occurred as many commuters were travelling to local offices and factories. Rush Hour in Moscow. And now a little commentary. I have previously written here that Iâd like to see the Chechnyian Conflict as maybe a template for a more agressive War against Militant Islam...but it does not seem to be going well for the Russians, and they certainly donât have some of the tough Rules of Engagement that are inflicted on American troops...and it still doesnât seem to be going well. Grozny is in shambles, looking to my eyes as bad as many WWII cities...and yet it still doesnât seem to go well for the Russians. At the time I made this argument many people said Russian soldiers are bad conscripts, ect., ect, ect, and not the equal of American soldiers. But I didnât buy that argument then, and I donât believe it now. They are soldiers, subject to the same boredom and stress and terrors as is so with all soldiers...and they want to stay alive...as do all soldiers. So this raises two questions: Since the Russians have been unsuccessful, can America afford to be more aggressive in its war in Iraq or Afghanastan...or wherever? Or is it just better, even militarily better, to just suck up the casualites that we seem to be suffering, and just soldier on? This presumes that we wish to avoid a war of civilizations with maybe one to two hundred million muslims being slaughtered, with the balance being force converted to Christianity. (In the end, this may be an option forced on us...Iâm just thinking the unthinkable.) The second question is...Why isnât this happening here? Iâm sorry but I donât think that Tom Ridge and Homeland Security is doing even a competent job on our borders, either north and south. If someone wanted to be smuggled in with 25 lbs of simtex or C4, I think it is easily doable. To answer my own question...it is possible that the various WOTâs have more to do with local factors than with any real and express threat to the United States. Iraq is confined to Iraq, Afghanistan to Afghanistan, and Chechnya to there and Russia. I donât like the way things are going in Iraq, but maybe it is really the best we can do or hope for and continue to hope to avoid importing the war into our shopping malls or subways. Just some thoughts. Posted by: Traveller 2004-02-06 |
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