Headline from 2008: Kerry, As School Toll Tops 350, Vows Fight

Yahoo! News - Putin, As School Toll Tops 350, Vows Fight John Kerry promises to respond forcefully "if" we are attacked. By failing to take the fight to the terrorists, he assures they will take it to us. Putin finally gets it. The only problem is, the Islamist terrorists are now WELL-entrenched within his borders, and so he's going to have to crack down on a scale that will make the American Left's most insane nightmares of Ashcroft's "Amerika" look like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Not gonna be pretty. Still, the fever-swamp-dwelling moonbats can take comfort in the fact that they have brethren overseas (don't they always?)

Marat Avsarayev, a 44-year-old taxi driver in Vladikavkaz, questioned why Putin and other politicians didn't "even think about fulfilling the (militants') demands to save the lives of the children. Probably because it wasn't their children here."

I can partly forgive the grief-stricken taxi driver for thinking that even the lives of several hundred children would be worth caving into terrorist demands, thus assuring further terrorist attacks and threats. It's hard to think long-term when the gun is pointed at your child's head. But know this - the terrorists are counting on such a response. And if your children are NOT directly under the gun, it is stupid, idiotic folly to think otherwise. Yes, Russia is a very different country than the US. Their history of totalitarian goverment is far longer than America's experiment in federal democracy. There will be little internal hue and cry over the coming crackdown. Russians expect and value security far more than they expect and value liberty. I could be wrong, of course, but I suspect not. They have less than a single generation's experience with democracy. There are no parents there with no memories of Soviet rule. Putin, I suspect, has less strength of character than strength of position. But as President Bush pointed out the other night, when you lead a nation that is under attack, whatever strengths you have, you're gonna need 'em. And use them. If you are a praying person, then please pray for Russia. Pray for Russia every day between now and Nov 2. Then vote for President Bush. Because if you don't, you'll be reading the headline above in a year or three.