The scene in Beslan, Russia is described in such horrific detail in so many places it is hard not to read at least some of the accounts. The New York Times recounts the story of one witness which I found particularly disturbing. I’ve posted it below (without permission), click ‘read more’. The title of this post reflects the standard time of mourning before the fathers of the butchered children will be expected to take up arms and seek retribution. I don’t see how any organization can expect to gain any amount of sympathy for their cause after an action like this. The whole thing is sureal, inexplicable and provides really good fodder for the hawks. Even I wanted to loose a few nukes. "Down the hall, Teimuraz Kanukov stood in a foul-smelling classroom with three teenaged daughters and two younger sons. A window sill was streaked by large dried pools of blood, the platform from which residents said the terrorists had shoved out dead hostages.

The window overlooked a lawn.

Mr. Kanukov had rushed the injured and dead from the school’s ground during the battle, risking his life along the edges of this lawn to carry them to waiting cars. Today he showed the wall outside where he had taken cover, just under the school’s windows, and described a scene of human nature turned upside down: a woman shooting a man who was trying to save his children.

"So many bullets were flying that you could not even put your nose past here," he said, but one father could not control himself and ran across the open lawn to try to reach the school. He made it about 100 feet, was struck and fell down.

Then, as they watched him writhing, exposed on the ground, one of the women among the terrorists appeared above him.

"She was shooting from the window, finishing him," Mr. Kanukov said. "We saw how the bullets hit his body."